China’s interest in South America is easily explained: The Asian giant has a voracious appetite for commodities and raw materials, including Argentine soybeans, Brazilian iron ore, Chilean and Peruvian metals, Ecuadorean and Venezuelan oil, and Uruguayan beef. Therefore, Beijing has expanded trade ties with governments across the resource-rich continent, from Caracas to Montevideo.

At first glance, the recent surge of Chinese activity in the Caribbean is harder to understand. The small island nations that have been flooded with Chinese investment do not possess great commodity wealth, nor do they have large economies, nor do they wield any real strategic clout. And yet Beijing has been funding myriad infrastructure projects in countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. “Dominica has received a grammar school, a renovated hospital and a sports stadium,” the New York Times reported back in April. “Antigua and Barbuda got a power plant and a cricket stadium, and a new school is on its way. The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago can thank Chinese contractors for the craftsmanship in her official residence.”