Chinatown (in Port-Au-Prince)

I just saw two articles on Yahoo News (via AP) on Int'l trade. First is headlined, "US Watches as China Woos Caribbean." And the second is about US companies shifting profits back home because of a lifting of tax burdens.

I'd have more to say if I wasn't so damn drowsy (and I also think co-blogger Tacitus is in a better position to opine on these), but for starters the author of the first article couldn't think of a better word aside from "woo" to use in an article about China?

With that said, the initial gut reaction to reading that Red China is moving in next door is to have flashbacks of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But as they say, this ain't your daddy's Communism anymore. Historically we've had the best interest for the US in mind when setting Caribbean and Western Hemisphere policy (e.g. Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt corillary, invasion of Panama and Granada, etc.) In a weird way, this might be a shift away from that by allowing the best interest of those Caribbean states dictate our policy (now I'm not so naive as to say that we're doing something against our interest here). The Chinese trading under our noses allows these countries access to goods and services at bargain prices (compared to getting them from US, Canada, or even Mexico). In the very abstract sense, as their wealth and economic standing increases, they will become much more attractive partners in the potential American Free Trade Zone (or whatever the hell it's called).