China courts Caribbean while US looks on

China is luring Caribbean countries away from their relationships with Taiwan, opening its thriving markets to the island nations, promising them Chinese tourists, and sending police to Haiti in the first such deployment in the Western Hemisphere. Caribbean trade with China reached US$2bn last year, a 42.5% jump from 2003, according to state media. Earlier this year, Dominica and Grenada sided with Beijing, breaking relations with Taiwan.