The white sands and spacious lobby of the British Colonial Hotel in Nassau have twice provided a sumptuous backdrop for James Bond.

Now the iconic hotel is at the centre of a real-life espionage battle as China buys up property and land in the Bahamas, barely 50 miles from the Florida coastline.

China had spent the past two decades mixing economics with geopolitics in the Caribbean, giving it the perfect platform to spy on American space launches, the US embassy, and an underwater warfare facility, said Rear-Adm Peter Brown, former Homeland Security adviser to president Donald Trump.

“The unique geography of the Bahamas poses a special opportunity to the United States, but it also creates risk if the People’s Republic of China takes over the best friend role to the government of the Bahamas,” he said.