ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 scrutinizes China’s socialization of the political elites of Trinidad and Tobago. The entire region initially became an object of Chinese attention as part of the Beijing-Taipei ‘diplomatic duel.’ However, socialization was initiated during the 2008–2016 ‘diplomatic truce’ and therefore has little to do with Taiwan. It is part of a much more ambitious geopolitical plan: in retaliation to American actions in the South China Sea, China is trying to construct a cognitive and normative space in the Commonwealth Caribbean conducive to a new, Beijing-centered regional order that should be politically friendly, economically profitable, and socially open to its government, firms, and citizens. This is done through efforts to socialize the entire state-society complex by transforming the Chinese norms into conditionalities. The process has been tremendously successful in the case of political elites due to the use of prestige infrastructure projects as material incentives. However, the socialization of the Trinidadian society failed due to the negative socio-economic consequences of China’s economic and social conditionalities. This has not prevented the constant improvement of the bilateral cooperation; but does not allow for the socialization of the entire state-society complex, which in turn limits the long-term results of Beijing’s Caribbean enterprise.
