Chinese business operators in Jamaica are being targeted for robbery by criminals on the island because of what the country’s Financial Investigations Division (FID) says is their known proclivity for conducting significant business transactions with cash.
The Jamaica Observer of Wednesday July 24 quoted FID Chief Technical Officer Justin Felice as saying that the reported targeting of Chinese business operators by criminals “is directly related to the reluctance of some members of the community to use the banking system.” The Jamaican FID official said Chinese businessmen “drive around with cash. When they go to the wharves they pay with cash.
Why? Because they don’t use the banking system… They don’t want to do that because they don’t want to pay the 25 or 30 per cent tax we have to pay. Everybody should be in the tax system.”
The July 24 Observer article referred to an earlier article, “two Sundays ago”, which asserted that “criminal elements including police personnel have been extorting money from some Chinese business operators.”
The growing business presence of Chinese in the Caribbean has given rise to tensions with the local population, in some instances, and some time ago the Ministry of Home Affairs in Guyana made a public statement regarding the seeming targeting of Chinese business houses for robberies.
Earlier this week in Kingston, Albert Stephens, an official of Jamaica’s Financial Crimes Investigation Unit (FCIU) was quoted as saying that the growing Chinese business community in Jamaica “employs a lot of persons” but has been the victim of criminal targeting “for some time”. He added that these are the things that deter potential investors.
The Observer also alluded to an announcement by Jamaica’s Police Commissioner Owen Ellington to the effect that the police on the island had initiated dialogue with members of the local Chinese community, especially those who operate businesses.
The announcement in Guyana regarding robberies that target Chinese business houses came amidst mounting evidence of their continually growing presence in the urban retail trade in goods manufactured in China.
While government has pronounced on the legitimacy of the Chinese presence here, a posture that is believed to be linked to the growing assertiveness of the broader Chinese presence in the Caribbean, there have been instances of tension with some sections of the local trading community resulting, it seems, from concerns that the influx of Chinese traders may be pushing some small local operators out of business.
