VICE News came with pre-determined agenda – Chinese Ambassador

…slams attempt to malign bilateral relations between Guyana and China

The recent attempts by VICE News to link the Guyana Government and Chinese businessmen to allegations of corruption, have been roundly condemned by Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Guo Haiyan as purely malicious.

During an interview with the media on the sidelines of an event on Monday, Ambassador Guo Haiyan described the VICE News report as not only malicious, but also clearly intended to malign bilateral relations between Guyana and China.
“Yesterday we saw the video. This so-called journalist, the undercover journalist, came with a pre-determined agenda. And I think the purpose is clear. One of their purposes is to smear the Chinese companies here and attack the China-Guyana cooperation. We saw the video and it’s cut and edited, with malicious purpose,” she said.
“And the Chinese Government and the embassy is always requiring that Chinese companies here in Guyana, they’re doing business and following the local laws, international practice and the rules. And they participated in the projects through open and fair competition.”

The ambassador explained that when Chinese companies come to Guyana, it is expected that they will abide by the local laws. If there are any violations of the law, then the onus is on the Guyana Government to take action. Asked about the role of her embassy in investing in Guyana, Haiyan noted that they convey the economic outlook in Guyana, back to China where it is conveyed to investors.
“We have very good political relations. We know Guyana is a friend of the country. Now the economic development is increasing. So, there’s more and more Chinese companies, interested in investment here. And more companies are coming. And the function of the embassy, first of all, we report the positive outlook of Guyana back to Government agencies,” the diplomat added.

Belt and Road
Guyana and China are currently celebrating 50 years of bilateral relations. VICE is meanwhile well known for making content that is critical of China and its Belt and Road Initiative (B&RI), which sees China making infrastructural investments in countries across different continents. In fact, the VICE journalist refers directly to this initiative during the episode and how it is viewed as a threat in the western world.
Back in February, when the full interview between Jagdeo and the VICE News Journalist first aired, the Chinese Embassy based in Georgetown, Guyana, had slammed the distortion of the facts on Guyana’s bilateral relations with China. The embassy had made it clear that relations with the two countries, inclusive of business relations, are founded on the law and international practices.
According to the statement from the Chinese Embassy, “China-Guyana friendly cooperation, featuring equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and benefits for the people, is in accordance with the interests of the two countries and two peoples, not against any third party, nor should it be influenced by a third party.”
In the wake of the airing of the VICE News feature, which was titled “Guyana for Sale” and contains the allegations against Jagdeo, sources indicate that legal action is likely to be taken against the parties involved in Chinese businessman Su Zhi Rong being caught on camera by the news agency making these allegations.
The full interview was aired February 5 following the two-hour interview with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo by a journalist of VICE Media Group, which was conducted on February 1, 2022.
In the interview aired on Sunday by Showtime television network, which has been whittled down to only 16 minutes, Su Zhi Rong, who operates in Guyana claimed to be close friends with Jagdeo.
In the same breath, however, he also made clear in the undercover interview that Jagdeo does not take bribes. In the preview released ahead of the full airing, Su Zhi Rong is also heard referring to Jagdeo saying, “his hands are very clean.”

No evidence
At no point in the full recording of the episode did VICE News present any evidence of wrongdoing or corruption on Jagdeo’s part. In the full recording, however, Su Zhi Rong was recorded using Jagdeo’s name in trying to negotiate a payment from the undercover VICE operator posing as a Chinese investor.

When the Vice President was visited at his house by Su Zhi Rong and the undercover VICE crew (the journalist posed as the secretary of the undercover investor), Jagdeo in the secretly recorded conversation did specify that he can assist with investment deals but made it clear that he will not get involved in any financial dealings.
“No no, I’m not getting involved with business… my thing is that I’m in Government. So, I assist from the Government side. That’s it,” Jagdeo said, after which Su Zhi Rong spoke to the Chinese ‘investor’ in Mandarin to further solicit the bribe, so that the Vice President could not realise that he was being used.
Persons falsely using Jagdeo’s name to solicit money from investors is nothing new and in fact Jagdeo had cause to publicly warn investors during a press conference last month, not to fall for this scam.
During his press conference, Jagdeo had given a recent example of someone being arrested right at Office of the President, for this very offence. The Vice President recalled that the man, who was a complete stranger to him, took a photo next to him and then later used this photo to collect money from companies on the false promise that he knew Jagdeo and could act as a liaison between them and the Vice President.
“He then showed up here, because my secretary called and arranged a meeting. He showed up with another person he was conning, bringing to the meeting. And he was arrested right here,” Jagdeo had said.
“So, this is going on, it has become almost like an industry, where people claim they are representing companies and I don’t know what they are representing to these people. So, if anyone is stupid enough to lose your money by thinking you will get any preferences, because someone arranged a meeting with some policymaker, it’s your loss.”
The VICE Media Group has been on a downward spiral in recent years and is clearly trying desperately to survive by inventing “exposés” of corruption in developing countries to feed the old colonial narratives in its North American markets.
In May 8, 2019, Disney had told investors that it had wiped out US$353 million of the money it had previously put into VICE. A month later, on June 10, 2019, HBO cancelled Vice News Tonight, putting an end to its seven-year relationship with VICE.
A year later, the downward spiral continued when VICE laid off 155 employees in May 2020. Finally, in August 2021, they launched a new wave of layoffs, reflecting the youth-culture media company’s ongoing financial struggles and need to realign toward profitable areas of the business — amid a broader shift toward video and visual content. (G3)