Chinese
navy hospital ship Peace Ark berthed in Jamaica on November 1 2011 as
part of a global humanitarian mission. The 584-foot-long
(178-meter-long) Peace Ark carries more than 100 medical volunteers
who provide free surgery, CAT scans, eye care and other procedures.
The floating hospital launched three years ago is on its second
foreign trip, roughly 100-day journey around the Caribbean. Hundreds
of Jamaicans lined up for hours to seek aid. The Peace Ark has
already visited Cuba and after Jamaica is scheduled to go to Trinidad
and Tobago.
Lt.
Cmdr. Chen Yong Peng
Chinese
Navy
Team
Leader On Shore Clinic
Kingston
Jamaica
“Our
team of medical staff is doing all kinds of surgeries and operations,
nearly everything except organ transplants. China has had a long
history of relations with Jamaica and other places in the Caribbean.”
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Doctor
diplomacy in Latin America is common. Cuba’s communist government
sends thousands of doctors to provide free care in poor countries in
the region each year and Venezuela also finances many of these
missions. Earlier this year, an 894-foot (272-meter) U.S. Navy
hospital ship brought medical care to Jamaica as part of a five-month
goodwill mission to nine countries in the Caribbean and Latin
America.
David
M. Lampton
Director
of the China studies program at
Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland.
 "The
Chinese military’s goodwill missions may cause Washington anxiety
in the future. China’s navy and soon air force will be moving
further and further into the global commons, which has traditionally
been dominated by the U.S. It’s trying to use military powers in
ways that are reassuring and not threatening. The Chinese have a
strategy of simultaneously growing their hard power but using it in a
soft way that’s reassuring and therefore doesn’t build a
coalition of enemies against it.”
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