How Taiwan’s Development Work in the Caribbean Can Counteract Chinese Influence

Introduction

Belize, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are the five remaining Caribbean countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. These countries can act as a counterbalance to Beijing’s growing influence over the region’s maritime logistics, transport corridors, digital networks, and other critical infrastructure. China’s increasing presence across these networks is an issue not only for Taiwan but also for the United State and like-minded democracies around the world, including across the Western Hemisphere. Supporting these countries’ development is key to helping them remain stable as they contend with climate shocks, migration pressures, and social and economic challenges—and especially coercive influence from abroad. Enhanced international partnerships with Taiwan and like-minded actors can provide Caribbean states with alternatives to China for financing, technical assistance, and international cooperation, while also reinforcing the value of maintaining close relationships with democratic partners.

Existing Development Efforts: An Active but Fragmented Partner Landscape

Many donors are already active across Taiwan’s five Caribbean diplomatic allies. There are useful existing projects across climate, water, agriculture, health, digital transformation, and disaster preparedness, but efforts can often be duplicative and disconnected from broader regional objectives, making these efforts less than the sum of their parts. Recent initiatives point toward greater cooperation between both local and international partners, though difficulties persist. Taiwan’s development work does not happen in a vacuum; it is most useful when it complements larger bilateral and multilateral donors.

Climate change vulnerability and low resilience to extreme weather events are among the most pressing threats to the region. Rising sea levels, stronger hurricane seasons, water scarcity, and coastal erosion disrupt economic activity, displace local populations, and discourage foreign investment. Frequent and severe extreme weather events stifle development efforts, trapping Caribbean countries in a cycle of rebuilding and recovery rather than progressive development. In the Caribbean, climate change accounts for $14 billion in annual losses, costing the equivalent to 17 percent of annual GDP. With around 7 in 10 people in the Caribbean living in coastal areas, and 14.5 percent of the population living less than 10 meters above sea level, climate change will continue to threaten future development efforts.

Likewise, the Caribbean faces several economic challenges rooted in overdependence on tourism, high import reliance, small domestic markets, limited investment, high public debt, and external migration. Tourism remains the lifeblood of many Caribbean economies, accounting for a large share of annual GDP; this dependence, in turn, increases economic vulnerability to external shocks and may have negative impacts on trade and further strain limited infrastructure. Compounding these issues are the small geographic and market sizes of such island nations, which limit economic opportunities and resource access. For these reasons, the Caribbean subregion (excluding Guyana) has a projected GDP growth rate of just 1.7 percent in 2026, trailing behind neighboring countries in Central and South America. The Inter-American Development Bank warns that current growth rates in the Caribbean remain insufficient to reduce income disparities, with high public debt and rising interest rates intensifying pressure on public finances and external accounts.

These issues are not only development challenges, but also strategic vulnerabilities that will push countries to look for partners that can offer practical support. If Taiwan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and multilateral development banks are not present, coordinated, and visible, other actors will step in. Below are several examples of areas of ongoing development support to Caribbean states:

• Climate Resilience and Disaster Preparedness: Local, regional, and international partners have combined efforts to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from increasingly common extreme weather events. Traditionally, foreign governments with key roles in climate resilience initiatives include Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and New Zealand. Multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Caribbean Development Bank have also played an active role, investing in critical climate-resilient infrastructure and education. In 2025, the World Bank approved $25 million in funds to strengthen flood infrastructure planning in Saint Lucia. The IDB also approved a $50 million Global Credit Loan for Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) members, including Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis, to strengthen their infrastructure resilience to disasters and climate change. Complementing these efforts, Taiwan has invested in infrastructure and leveraged its technical expertise to conduct institutional capacity building. In Saint Kitts and Nevis, for example, Taiwan is developing the Basseterre Desalination Plant, with an emphasis on training local personnel for project sustainability. This type of support is valuable, but the long-term impact will depend on project follow-through and maintenance and how well such projects connect to broader efforts and planning.
• Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Security: Food security is a regional priority, but the need is not just production. It includes value chains, irrigation, seeds, storage, markets, and resilience. Strengthening local food systems can promote economic growth and reinforce regional security while also mitigating drivers of migration. Many food security initiatives have focused on technology, market access, and empowerment of marginalized communities. CARICOM’s 25 by 2025 Initiative helped support an estimated 24 percent increase in food production, major infrastructure investments, and private sector participation between 2022 and 2024. CARICOM has since announced plans to extend the program through 2030, citing impacts from extreme weather events as hindrances to meeting the original 2025 deadline.
  
  Progress in food security has been disrupted by the global shake-up in development funding, and the loss of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding has reportedly contributed to the stalling of food security progress made through 2024. Though weakened without USAID support, other international partners continue to work toward mitigating food security and supply chain vulnerability. In 2026, the European Union created a new initiative in collaboration with the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Zero Hunger Trust Fund, focused on food security, climate resilience, and youth engagement. Likewise, Taiwan has continued to support food security initiatives, focusing on adopting precision irrigation systems, improving crop monitoring, and supporting climate-resilient farming techniques in Haiti.
• Health Cooperation and Digital Health: Health systems are affected by a fragmented and underfunded landscape throughout the Caribbean. Recent initiatives from the Caribbean Public Health Agency have drawn on the funding, knowledge, and technical expertise of larger donor countries and multilateral development banks to strengthen and modernize the health sector. Taiwan’s assistance fits into the broader push for health modernization and local capacity building in the Caribbean through its donation of medicine and equipment, personnel training, and the digitalization of health care administration. The coordination of joint U.S.-Taiwan medical missions has further supported Taiwanese partners in the region, strengthening diplomatic relations while also providing critical medical care to local populations. Still, the long-term impact of these efforts will be stronger if they are connected to national health systems and include sufficient capacity-building to ensure continuity, rather than remaining only short-term missions.

Given this active and diverse development landscape, Taiwan’s greatest impact will not be in providing the greatest amount of capital or implementing a large number of projects. Instead, it can use its technical cooperation to fill gaps where it adds value, particularly in areas where building local capacity, being a reliable and consistent partner, and providing hands-on support can matter more than the size of investment.

Where Targeted Cooperation Can Have the Greatest Impact

Taiwan’s development programming in the Caribbean can complement larger donors and regional institutions. Much of this work is carried out through the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), Taiwan’s main development assistance agency. Taiwan’s experience as a small island economy provides it with practical knowledge and training that are particularly relevant to the Caribbean context. Taiwan should consider targeted cooperation in the following areas:

• Strengthening Agriculture from Production to Markets: Improving agricultural efficiency and resilience will be one of the primary ways in which Caribbean countries can address basic development challenges and economic pressures. For donors such as Taiwan, the focus should be on helping countries become more productive and resilient in meeting their own food needs, while also developing more market-oriented agricultural systems.
  
  Expanding climate-smart agriculture should be one priority. Resilient crops, improved water and soil management, drought and flood adaptation measures, and farming practices that can withstand extreme weather events such as hurricanes are key. These efforts should incorporate traditional and community-based agricultural practices, as the success of projects depends heavily on their adaptability and community buy-in.
  
  Challenges beyond food production, including issues with storage and transport, such as insufficient cold chain infrastructure, also lead to lower productivity. Technical support, education, and technology from development partners can support these central components of the value chain. Additionally, it is key to move many of these economies beyond production and into value-added activities such as food processing, packaging, branding, and expanding in local and even regional markets. This is also where Taiwan’s work should be connected to private-sector actors such as farmers, local buyers, and supermarkets, so that projects go beyond production support alone.
• Digital Transformation for Public Services and Productivity: Development partners should see digital systems as tools to help countries address practical challenges across sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, disaster response, public services, and workforce development. Emphasis should be placed on working closely with each partner country to identify sectors in which a partner’s technological expertise can most effectively support local development. The goal should not be to develop the tech sector for its own sake, but to use technology with the broader purpose of helping states deliver services more effectively and build the capacity to apply these same tools to other challenges. Identifying where digital tools can improve government efficiency, service delivery, transparency, and data-based decisionmaking will be key to enhancing productivity, improving responsiveness to citizens’ needs, and supporting integration into regional and global markets. However, these types of projects also require strong cybersecurity systems, and fully developing them will require government investment.
• Building Local Opportunity Through Workforce Development: In the Caribbean, most workers depend on small and medium-sized enterprises, making the growth and productivity of such companies particularly important for employment and economic growth. Development partners should support efforts that tie directly to labor market needs. This will require greater coordination among the public and private sectors, educational institutions, and development agencies to identify country priorities, promising sectors, and the comparative advantages of both the country and its partners. 
  
  The IDB and TaiwanICDF’s employability work in Belize offers a useful example. It focuses on high-demand sectors while also strengthening job-matching services and demand-driven training aligned with employer needs. The UK-funded Skills for Youth Employment in the Caribbean program offers another example, linking technical and vocational education and training to high-demand sectors and focusing on employability for young people and disadvantaged groups. These projects are also a great opportunity to connect directly with local populations to make development cooperation more visible and directly connected to the needs of the ultimate beneficiaries.
• Climate Adaptation, Disaster Preparedness, and Resilient Infrastructure: While large-scale infrastructure and financing needs are considerable, development agencies with smaller budgets are better suited to contribute in more targeted and practical ways. Taiwan, for example, can draw on its own island experience to support early warning systems, predictive modeling for droughts or flooding, and community preparedness and response.
  
  In countries such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, focus should be placed on post-hurricane recovery, improved planning to manage rainfall and flooding, and resilient agriculture. Programs that have already supported areas such as food security and productivity could be linked to climate adaptation, particularly as countries are still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Beryl in 2024. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as well as in Saint Lucia, flooding and coastal resilience should also be prioritized, as large shares of the population and critical infrastructure are located in low-lying coastal areas.
  
  There are already several existing projects that can be expanded or built upon by different development partners, mostly multilateral institutions. These include support for early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, water resilience, and public health emergency response across the region. TaiwanICDF, for example, has projects in Belize that support early warning systems, disaster prevention maps, and monitoring technologies for floods; efforts in Saint Kitts and Nevis to respond to climate-related water scarcity; and work in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines related to public health emergency response, recovery following volcanic-related damage, and smart public-safety systems. These kinds of efforts should be better connected to broader regional climate adaptation and disaster preparedness strategies so that targeted projects can contribute more directly to long-term resilience.

Targeted Cooperation as Strategic Partnership

Ultimately, development cooperation in the Caribbean should be understood as both practical development support and part of a broader strategic partnership that supports democratic allies while limiting China’s encroachment in the region. Sustained support will be important for strengthening the resilience and security of Caribbean partners as well as ensuring the advancement of regional interests. Development partners should maintain engagement by prioritizing local initiatives, providing support where requested, and encouraging greater regional cohesion through multisectoral initiatives. Even in complex environments such as Haiti, where experts warn that the humanitarian crisis will continue to stifle development efforts, partners should consider development assistance a long-term investment in an important regional partnership.

For its part, Taiwan’s value lies in targeted technical cooperation, training, and practical projects in areas such as agriculture, health, information and communications technology, workforce development, disaster preparedness, and public-sector capacity. For the United States, partnership with Taiwan can be a force multiplier in the Caribbean at a time when Washington is seeking greater engagement with the region on economic and security issues. To make this role more impactful and maximize benefits for partner countries and the overall stability of the region, TaiwanICDF’s work should be better coordinated with other development partners, connected to local institutions and communities, and made more visible to the population it is meant to support.

Juliana Rubio is an associate director with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Kaela Werchniak is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Americas Program at CSIS.