Communist China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on June 4, 2024 described Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla as a “good old friend of China.” Rodríguez’s official visit from June 5 to 9 as a special envoy of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel highlights the two communist regimes’ “special friendship.”
The relationship between the two communist regimes has been complicated, and not always good.
On September 28, 1960 the Cuban dictatorship diplomatically recognized the Peoples Republic of China. Ernesto “Che” Guevara led a Cuban delegation’s visit to Mainland China and met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other high ranking Chinese officials in November 1960 to discuss conditions in Cuba and in Latin America, and the prospects for communist revolution in the Western Hemisphere. This was at a time that Havana still had normal diplomatic relations with the United States. Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States were severed on January 3, 1961.
Subsequently, between 1960 and 1964 the two regimes collaborated closely together, but relations between China and Cuba cooled in 1964 when the Castro regime sided with the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet split, for instance. The warming of relations between the Peoples Republic of China and the United States beginning in the Nixon Administration did not improve matters.
Moreover, , in his CNN article “Castro’s Cuba and Mao’s China: Communist regimes that never saw eye to eye” published on November 26, 2016 recalled the late Cuban dictator’s critique of Mao Zedong in 1977.
“I believe that Mao (Zedong) destroyed with his feet what he did with his head for many years. I’m convinced of that. And some day the Chinese people, the Communist party of China will have to recognize that,” Castro told American journalist Barbara Walters in May 1977. He went on to list what he said were Mao’s grave mistakes: a cult personality and abuse of great power. “I also acquired that power, but I never abused it, nor did I retain it in my hands,” Castro said. Although both Cuba and China were functioning Communist states, Castro told Walters he viewed China as a “good ally” of the US, which was a bitter enemy of Cuba.
Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on June 6, 2024 (Twitter)
Breitbart, June 5, 2024
China Welcomes Cuban, Venezuelan Leaders for Latin America Leftist Meetup
By Christian K. Caruzo5 Jun 2024The foreign ministers of Venezuela’s socialist regime and Cuba’s communist regime began a visit to China this week to meet with Communist Party officials, state media from all three nations reported.
According to the Chinese government, both foreign ministers are visiting Beijing at the invitation of their Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Foreign Minister Yvan Gil of Venezuela was the first to begin his agenda in China, arriving on Tuesday for a three-day visit. According to a statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Gil’s visit occurs within the context of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Venezuela and China on June 28, 1974. Gil will also “evaluate the progress” of the agreements signed between both countries in September 2023 during socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s official visit to China.
“We have arrived in the People’s Republic of China to give continuity to the work undertaken by President Nicolás Maduro in the consolidation of the strategic alliance ‘against any test and at all times’ between China and Venezuela,” Gil said in a statement on social media upon arriving in Beijing. “We will be fulfilling a broad agenda of evaluation and monitoring of the agreements that pursue the prosperity of our peoples.”
Gil met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday. According to the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency, Wang said the relationship between China and Venezuela “has been developing with clearer direction and enriched content as well as with stronger impetus” under the leadership of both regimes.
Gil thanked China for its “valuable assistance to the social and livelihood development of Venezuela,” and asserted that Venezuela “firmly abides” by the one-China principle, a concept pushed by the Chinese Communist Party which denies the existence of Taiwan as a sovereign nation by falsely claiming that the country is a province of communist China.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry noted that Gil was pleased with Wang’s reception and “valued the alliance of peace and respect between both nations that have supported each other in difficult times, demonstrating that humanity of shared benefit is possible.”
“With this visit, we strengthen the friendship and strategic cooperation between China and Venezuela, for the benefit of our region and the multipolar world,” Gil wrote on social media after his meeting with Wang.
The Castro regime’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla landed in Beijing on Wednesday as part of his official visit, acting as a “special envoy” of the communist regime’s figurehead President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Rodríguez Parrilla’s visit is slated to conclude on Sunday, June 9.
Prior to his arrival, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described Rodríguez Parrilla in a press conference on Tuesday as a “dear old friend of the Chinese people” and stated that his visit to China as a special envoy of Díaz-Canel “highlights the high-level political mutual trust and special friendship between China and Cuba.”
“China attaches high importance to the visit. Chinese leaders and heads of competent authorities will meet with special envoy Rodríguez and have in-depth exchanges of views with him on China-Cuba relations and issues of mutual interest,” Mao told reporters. She continued:
China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers. In recent years, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Cuba relations have been extraordinarily strong and robust and have become a fine example of solidarity and cooperation between socialist countries and sincere mutual assistance between developing countries. China hopes that through this visit, the two sides will further enhance strategic communication, deliver on the important common understandings between the two heads of state, continue to deepen our special friendship and jointly build a China-Cuba community with a shared future.
Rodríguez Parrilla met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing on Wednesday. According to Xinhua, both officials “exchanged views on bilateral cooperation and other topics,” with Rodríguez Parrilla stating that China and Cuba are “good friends, good comrades, and good brothers.”
He asserted that China is ready to work with Cuba to “implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, deepen practical cooperation in trade, investment, tourism and other fields, and promote the building of a China-Cuba community with a shared future.”
Rodríguez Parrilla reportedly thanked China for supporting Havana and asserted that the communist-ruled nation is willing to “strengthen cooperation with China in various fields and push for new development of the special friendly relations between the two countries.”
“I reiterated support and adherence of Cuba to Chinese global initiatives that promote the development of the Global South,” Rodríguez Parrilla wrote on social media.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
The Washington Times, June 14, 2023
China’s decades-long military presence in Cuba goes beyond espionage
By John Suarez and Jianli Yang – – Wednesday, June 14, 2023OPINION:
President Biden has made it clear that he seeks competition, not conflict, with China, but President Xi Jinping has other plans. China seeks to replace the U.S. as the world’s superpower, create a new international world order in its totalitarian image, and Communist Cuba has been an ally in that effort.
The failure of the U.S. to side consistently with pro-democracy movements in both countries led to lost opportunities and instead empowered two regimes hostile to America while the current administration is repeating the same errors.
There has been a substantial Chinese military presence in Cuba for the past 24 years, and this relationship is not limited to espionage.
The Biden administration’s initial response to an article in The Wall Street Journal that “China was preparing to build a spy station in Cuba” was one of denial, but the existence of Chinese bases spying on the United States forced the White House to walk that back.
Manuel Cereijo, a professor of electronic engineering at Florida International University, reported in a 1999 study: “Chinese personnel have allegedly been working out of the Bejucal listening post since March 1999. In 1995, [Russia] began helping Cuba build the base south of Havana. It is allegedly capable of both eavesdropping and ‘cyber-warfare.’ Chinese workers are reportedly helping Cuba modernize a satellite-tracking center.”
In 2002, in El Nuevo Herald, Mr. Cereijo reported that “Chinese personnel, in collaboration with Cubans on Project Titan, have also built two antenna bases, one in Wajay, Havana, and the other in Santiago de Cuba, known as the antenna farm.”
Although the communist regimes in China and Cuba were established 10 years apart (Mao Zedong in 1949 and the Castro brothers in 1959), the dictatorships have much in common: They see the U.S. as an enemy, and they also see democracy and human rights as hostile to their interests, and anti-Americanism remains a core tenet of their ideology.
On Sept. 28, 1960, the Cuban regime diplomatically recognized China. This was at a time when Havana maintained normal diplomatic relations with the United States and had not declared its communist nature, and no sanctions had been imposed.
In November 1960, Ernesto “Che” Guevara led a Cuban delegation to China, where he met with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other high-ranking Chinese officials to discuss conditions in Cuba and Latin America, as well as the prospects for spreading communism across the Western Hemisphere. Between 1960 and 1964, Beijing and Havana worked closely together. When the Castro regime sided with the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet split in 1964, these connections cooled.
Under Castroism, Havana’s ties with foreign countries were frequently defined by their antipathy toward and threat to the United States. From 1959 through 1991, the Soviet Union was regarded as an existential danger to the United States, and Havana maintained close ties with Moscow. Relations with Havana cooled as Mikhail Gorbachev began to push human rights and market reforms in the Soviet Union in 1985.
Meanwhile, Fidel Castro openly supported Beijing’s Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and his government was one of the few in the world to do so. This backing resulted in Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s high-level visit to Cuba in 1993, followed by Raul Castro’s first visit to China in 1997. These travels were publicly utilized to sign new trade and investment deals, but they were also used to push more strategic and ideological objectives.
After negotiations between Raul Castro and Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian, as well as Gen. Dong Liang Ju, an agreement was reached between Beijing and Havana in 1999 under which Chinese military personnel would use the Bejucal base and others alongside Cuban military personnel to spy on the U.S.
The Washington Times reported on June 12, 2001, that “at least three arms shipments were traced from China to the Cuban port of Mariel over the past several months.” U.S. intelligence authorities were sourced saying, “all of the weapons were aboard vessels owned by the state-run China Ocean Shipping Co. (Cosco).” Military-grade dual-use explosives and detonation cords were among the goods.
According to the story, the latest of these three shipments arrived in December 2000, coinciding with a visit to Cuba that month of Beijing’s military chief of staff, Fu Quanyou. The Chinese general “signed a military cooperation agreement with Havana aimed at modernizing Cuba’s outdated Russian weapons,” The Times said.
Colombia intercepted a Chinese ship smuggling weapons intended for Cuba in 2015.
Official visits continued with Fidel Castro’s trip to China in 2003 and Raul Castro’s in 2012, while Mr. Xi made his first visit to Cuba in 2014. These high-level visits have continued to this day and do not bode well for U.S. interests.
Despite this, the Biden administration has maintained that Washington is “determined to avoid” a cold war with Beijing. The incident involving China’s spy station in Cuba is only the latest evidence that Cold War 2.0 has already begun.
The administration should stop denying it. Instead, it should accept that Beijing and Washington’s relationship is what it is and ensure that the U.S. wins the new Cold War.
• John Suarez is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba and a human rights activist. Jianli Yang is founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of “It’s Time for a Values-Based ‘Economic NATO.’”
https://www.washingtontimes.