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Chi­na dou­bled down on its dis­missal of the Unit­ed States crit­i­cism of a mul­ti mil­lion dol­lar loan to The Ba­hamas, de­scrib­ing as “base­less and ab­surd” ac­cu­sa­tions that it was us­ing the fund­ing for the con­struc­tion of a hos­pi­tal in that coun­try to fur­ther en­trench it­self in the Caribbean re­gion.

“Is there a US loan pro­pos­al at all on the ta­ble?” the Chi­nese Em­bassy asked in a state­ment, re­gard­ing the US$195 mil­lion fund­ing for the hos­pi­tal in west­ern New Prov­i­dence.

Last week, the Phillip Davis gov­ern­ment signed a deal with the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na to fund the hos­pi­tal that is ex­pect­ed to cost US$267 mil­lion, with 73 per cent of the costs, or $195 mil­lion, be­ing pro­vid­ed by the Chi­nese Ex­port-Im­port Bank.