China Aids Suriname, Expanding South American Role

PARAMARIBO, Suriname — The Foreign Ministry’s elegant new headquarters here is a gift from the Chinese government. Chinese signs on hundreds of businesses, from casinos to grocery shops and furniture stores, beckon the residents of this capital. Chinese work crews are paving roads cutting through the jungle.       

Anchored by a surge in immigration to this country since the 1990s, and smoothed with gifts of aid and low-interest loans, China has quietly but surely established a foothold in Suriname , a tiny corner of South America that is often an afterthought even for its neighbors.

While the economic aid has certainly been welcome in Suriname, formerly known as Dutch Guiana, the growing political and demographic profile of the Chinese here has created concerns, ranging from xenophobic calls from some political leaders here to investigate what they call a “Chinese invasion” to more tempered efforts to decipher what effect China’s rising influence will have on a country that is already distant linguistically and culturally from the rest of South America.       

“What’s next, Chinese Guiana?” asked John Gimlette, a Briton whose book, “Wild Coast,” about the forgotten corner of the world on South America’s northeastern shoulder — Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname — was published this year.       

China, which has built an embassy compound here that dwarfs the aging United States Embassy, insists that it has no plans to make Suriname into a de facto colony. Instead, China portrays its growing clout here as a reflection of solidarity with another developing nation.       

Still, Chinese officials acknowledge that Suriname, which is about the size of Florida but with a much smaller population, about 500,000, is rich in potential.       
“Suriname is a lucky country, such small population, so much land,” said Yuan Nansheng, the Chinese ambassador to Suriname, in an interview.       

China, which enjoyed warm ties with previous Surinamese leaders, has also nurtured a close relationship with President Desi Bouterse, a controversial figure who until his election by Parliament last year was a fugitive from Interpol because of a 1999 cocaine trafficking conviction in the Netherlands.       

Mr. Yuan said that he met with Mr. Bouterse at least once a month, about the same pace of meetings he had with Robert Mugabe , the president of Zimbabwe, where he served as ambassador before coming to Suriname.       
Mr. Yuan said China had no problem with the questions surrounding Mr. Bouterse’s past, even as the president also remains on trial for the killing of 15 top opponents in the 1980s, when he installed a military government here after taking part in a coup. “Of course, we would like to invite Mr. Bouterse to China,” Mr. Yuan said.       

Meanwhile, though precise figures are hard to obtain, China is also thought to have emerged as the top provider of aid to Suriname after the Netherlands conveniently ended important aid disbursements here around the time of Mr. Bouterse’s election last year

Aside from the new Foreign Ministry building, designed and built by Chinese companies, China’s aid to Suriname includes military assistance, construction of low-income housing, a plan to derive renewable energy from rice husks, help for shrimp farming and an upgrade of the state television network.