(Daily Signal)—While the Trump administration is working to decrease U.S. dependency on Chinese goods by bolstering U.S. manufacturing, one of America’s trading partners and neighbors to the south appears to be growing increasingly friendly with the Chinese Communist Party, posing a threat to U.S. interests.
“The Dominican Republic is key to China’s strategy to isolate the U.S. in the Caribbean,” Connie Mack IV, a former Republican congressman from Florida, tells The Daily Signal.
The Dominican Republic established diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China in 2018, and under then-Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina, the Caribbean nation signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative and no longer recognizes Taiwan’s independence from China.
“The Medina government committed to collaboration with the PRC in numerous fields, including PRC training of Dominican Foreign Ministry personnel, the establishment of a Confucius Institute, accepting a gift of 148 Chinese military and police vehicles … plus agreement in principle to PRC construction of a major new port facility in Manzanillo, electricity generation, and other infrastructure,” according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
While Medina deepened ties with China, even allowing China to have an office in the Presidential Palace, he did not visit the U.S. during his eight years in office from 2012 to 2020.
When Luis Abinader became president in 2020, he pledged to strengthen relations with the U.S. and limit Chinese investment.
“If China wants to invest in nonstrategic areas of the Dominican government, its investment is welcome, but the Dominican government’s decision is to have a strategic alliance with the United States,” Abinader said publicly shortly after taking office.
While “China’s advance under the Abinader government has proceeded slowly,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the relationship between the two nations remains strong.
During a meeting between Abinader and the Dominican Republic’s foreign minister with Chinese officials in 2022, Dominican officials expressed a readiness to “deepen practical cooperation with China and Chinese companies,” according to a report from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The Dominican Republic highly appreciates the important contributions made by President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government to maintaining world peace and stability,” according to the Chinese report.
In 2023, top Dominican officials met with Chinese counterparts in talks focused on political and economic coordination. The same year, the Dominican Republic also sent soldiers to China to participate in a military exercise in Xinjiang, where the CCP is reported to have imprisoned an unknown number of Uyghur Muslims.
The Dominican Republic is one of China’s largest trading partners in the Caribbean, and in 2024, bilateral trade between the two countries reached over $5 billion, according to Trading Economics. And most recently, the Dominican Republic sent its trade officials in May to a forum aimed at strengthening ties between Latin America, the Caribbean, and the People’s Republic of China.
America’s relationship with the Dominican Republic is “solid, but complex,” according to the U.S. State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Dominican Republic during his first international trip as Trump’s top diplomat and spoke with Abinader as recently as May.
“Under Joe Biden, the U.S. turned a blind eye to the Dominican Republic’s slouch towards Beijing,” Mack, the former Florida lawmaker, said. “The Rubio State Department cannot make the same mistake. They must remove the blinders they have about the current Dominican government. They do not support the America First agenda.”
Given the Dominican Republic’s robust economy and proximity to the U.S., separated only by about 800 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, it is in America’s interest that the Dominican Republic’s “interactions with the PRC are conducted within the framework of transparency, strong institutions, and a level playing field, and that PRC activities in the country … [do] not undermine U.S.-Dominican security,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote.
Why One Survival Food Company Shines Above the Rest
Let’s be real. “Prepper Food” or “Survival Food” is generally awful. The vast majority of companies that push their cans, bags, or buckets desperately hope that their customers never try them and stick them in the closet or pantry instead. Why? Because if the first time they try them is after the crap hits the fan, they’ll be too shaken to call and complain about the quality.
It’s true. Most long-term storage food is made with the cheapest possible ingredients with limited taste and even less nutritional value. This is why they tout calories so much. Sure, they provide calories but does anyone really want to go into the apocalypse with food their family can’t stand?
This is what prompted the Llewellyns to launch Heaven’s Harvest. They bought survival food from multiple companies and determined they couldn’t imagine being stuck in an extended emergency with such low-quality food. They quickly discovered that freeze drying food for long-term storage doesn’t have to mean sacrificing flavor, consistency, or nutrition.
Their ingredients are all-American. In fact, they’re locally sourced and all-natural! This allows their products to be the highest quality on the market, so good that their customers often break open a bag in a pinch to eat because they want to, not just because they have to due to an emergency.
At Heaven’s Harvest, their only focus is amazing food. They don’t sell bugout bags, solar chargers, or multitools. They have one mission – feeding Americans in times of crisis.
What they DO offer is the ability for people to thrive in times of greatest need. On top of long-term storage food, they offer seeds to help Americans for the truly long-term. They want them to grow their own food if possible which is why they offer only Heirloom, Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid, Open-Pollinated seeds so their customers can build permanent food security on their own property.
Unlike the US’s relationship with Taiwan.
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC HAS A STATE CHURCH THAT IS THE POPE IN ROME. THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC OCCUPIES ONE HALF OF THE ISLAND OF HISPANOLA. THE OTHER HALF IS HAITI. CHINA AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ARE PARTNERS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.