63 Years of Independence, Justice and Human Dignity!
CNC Co-Chair Elizabeth Hill welcomes
Jorge Yanier Castellanos Orta,
General Consul of the Republic of Cuba in Toronto.
China Signs Construction &
Energy Deals with Cuba
By Chris
Devonshire-Ellis on January 7, 2022
Sometimes, you just
have to be patient. Cuba, the Caribbean nation long a thorn in the side of the
United States since Fidel Castro took control of the island against U.S.
wishes, has managed to get around crippling U.S. sanctions that have rendered
the islands economy backwards for over 50 years by signing reconstruction deals
with China as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Cuba’s economy shrunk
by 11% in 2020, and the government says it only began to grow slowly last year
at just 2%. Cuba’s shortages of food, medicine and other basics have been
worsened by decades of U.S. sanctions, which were tightened under former
President Donald Trump.
China and Cuba have
now signed a cooperation plan to promote construction into the country,
injecting momentum for further collaboration by leveraging the complementary
advantages of both parties and for cooperation between China and Latin America.
China has been making inroads into Latin and Central America too as the United
States ability to agree external funding for some of its closest global
partners is buried under a weight of preconditions and political infighting.
Never mind the proposed ‘Build Back Better World’, China is exerting control of
a region now seemingly beyond Washington’s influence.
The China-Cuba deal
also shows that the era of U.S. economic might is possibly damaged more than is
generally realized. While the nation remains rich, political infighting has
diminished its ability to contain perceived threats and extend its global
influence, bending other nations to U.S. Foreign policy.
The significance of
the China-Cuba deal will not be lost on Russia, also a close ally of Havana,
and who have been threatened with ‘sanctions like you’ve never seen’ over the
Ukraine issue. Those will mainly extend cutting Russia off from the global
SWIFT payments network and persuading the EU to buy its goods and energy
supplies from America instead, which might suit short-term Washington
objectives but will ultimately cede global power and influence beyond Western
Europe and North America to Beijing and Moscow.
But back to the
China-Cuba deal. He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform
Commission, China’s top economic planner, and Cuban Deputy Prime Minister
Ricardo Cabrisas, signed off the agreement on Christmas Day, clarifying key
cooperation content and projects for China and Cuba under the BRI, including
infrastructure, technology, culture, education, tourism, energy,
communications, and biotechnology. This have been coordinated as many BRI
agreements have been, to fit alongside Cuba’s short and longer-term development
plans, and come with a proposed timetable and implementation roadmap.
The signing of this
agreement shows that the two countries have accelerated their cooperation and
highlighted China’s principle of mutual benefit on the basis of equality toward
countries in Latin America, especially after the resumption of diplomatic
relations between China and Nicaragua–another Latin American nation long
sanctioned by Washington.
Zhou Zhiwei, a
research fellow on Latin American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences noted in the Global Times that the agreement will help Cuba’s economic
recovery and improve local livelihoods, as well as promoting cooperation
between China and Latin America in tourism and energy. “Cuba is rich in mineral
and oil resources and is a major source of nickel ore for China. The country
also has large potential for development in agriculture and tourism,” he said.
China and Cuba have
achieved results in energy cooperation in recent years. In terms of traditional
energy, Chinese companies have carried out related cooperation projects in
Cuba. In the new-energy sector, including wind power and photovoltaics,
cooperation has been increased.
Cuba became a member
of the BRI energy partnership in October 2021, a partnership network that now
has 32 members and aims to promote energy cooperation in BRI markets as
countries pursue a low-carbon transition. Energy has always been the focus of
Cuba’s socioeconomic development plan, with Havana proposing that 24% of its
electricity supply will come from renewable energy sources by 2030.
“China is actively
maintaining the normal order of international relations and striving to promote
common development across the world, unlike the U.S., which, under the banner
of democracy, has imposed an economic embargo on some Latin American countries,
interfering in their internal affairs and limiting cooperation among foreign
companies,” Zhou noted.
China is Cuba’s
largest trading partner in goods, and Cuba is China’s second-largest trading
partner in the Caribbean. Cuba exports mainly sugar and nickel to China. It
imports a broad array of supplies, ranging from machinery and transportation
equipment to raw materials and food. The country has also recently become an
observer nation to Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union, suggesting a Free Trade
Agreement could soon be in the offing.
Washington meanwhile
must be wondering exactly how the economic might it has been used to wielding
via sanctions came to be so badly frittered away. Clearly, with China turning
up in Cuba, when in 1962 the U.S. was able to rebuff Russia, the sanctions and
economic threat strategies the United States have been so eager to deploy need
a complete rethink. They simply now do not work–China has developed an economic
vaccine.
Source: Monthly Review
