Chinese Premier Li Peng and Fidel Castro in Havana in 1995
President Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, exchanged congratulatory messages with Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two communist dictatorships.
On September 28, 1960 the Cuban government diplomatically recognized the Peoples Republic of China. Ernesto "Che" Guevara with a Cuban delegation visited 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.
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and Chairman Mao Zedong dining in 1960
Between 1960 and 1964 the two regimes collaborated closely together.
Relations between China and Cuba cooled in 1964 when the Castro regime sided with the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet split, but warmed again in 1989 following the Tiananmen Massacre. The Castro regime was one of the few governments to support the massacre, and the Castro regime had distanced itself from the Soviet Union viewing Perestroika and Glasnost as existential threats to their rule.
Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union provided Havana with expertise in biological warfare and biotech that had been denied to the Chinese due to the above mentioned split. The Castro regime beginning in the late 1980s began offering that knowledge to their counterparts in Beijing and signed a formal agreement to produce monoclonal antibodies in 2002.
The two regimes have been working closely together during the COVID-19 pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Above is a video presentation given in April 2020 on this relationship and its negative international impact.
At the United Nations Human Rights Council on July 1, 2020 the Castro regime took the lead in backing the new security law in Hong Kong that effectively ends autonomy there. Below is the official statement by one of the many propaganda agencies of the Chinese Communist Party reproduced today in The Sun.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his wife with President Xi Jinping and his wife in Beijing, Nov. 8, 2018.
Chinese President Xi Jinping says he values highly the unique friendship between China and Cuba and is ready to help make both countries good friends, good comrades, and good brothers forever.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in congratulatory messages exchanged with Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The congratulatory messages were to celebrate the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.
In his message to Castro, Xi noted that Cuba is the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
He said that the bilateral ties had withstood the vicissitudes of the international situation and grown ever stronger over the past 60 years.
Political mutual trust between China and Cuba has been continuously deepened and bilateral practical cooperation has yielded fruitful results, according to Xi.
The Chinese leader added that the two countries had stood together and joined hands to fight the coronavirus pandemic – a relationship which has raised their traditional friendship to a higher level.
Xi stressed that he values highly the unique China-Cuba friendship and is willing to maintain close communication with Castro and take the 60th anniversary as an opportunity to help the two countries stay as good friends, good comrades, and good brothers forever.
In his congratulatory message to Diaz-Canel, Xi said that since the two countries established diplomatic ties 60 years ago, China and Cuba had forged a profound friendship with mutual understanding, mutual trust, and mutual support.
Xi noted that in recent years, China-Cuba friendly cooperation has been deepening in an all-round way, including active collaboration under the Belt and Road Initiative, which has brought concrete benefits to the people of both countries.
He added that in the fight against the coronavirus, China and Cuba have stood together and helped each other, writing a new chapter in the friendship between the two peoples.
He said he attached great importance to the development of China-Cuba relations, and was prepared to work with Diaz-Canel to continue to deepen political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation in various fields, so as to create more benefits for both countries and their people.
For his part, Castro said in the message that Cuba is the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with China and has always maintained sincere friendship with brotherly China, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people.
He expressed Cuba’s appreciation to China for its firm support , saying his country “is fully convinced that the 60-year-old friendship between Cuba and China will be passed down from generation to generation and last forever.”
Diaz-Canel said in his congratulatory message that the close friendship between the two countries “has withstood the test of time” and both sides “have always appreciated each other’s achievements in socialist construction’ as their own”.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Diaz-Canel said, both Cuba and China remained committed to unity and cooperation, pooling resources to save lives, taking scientific prevention and control measures, and undertaking international cooperation.
According to him, Cuba is willing to continuously consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries and expand bilateral cooperation in various fields.
On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang exchanged congratulatory messages with his Cuban counterpart Manuel Marrero.
Li said in the message that over the past six decades, China-Cuba relations enjoyed rapid development and “bilateral cooperation has been moving forward in various fields”, bringing not only benefits to both countries and their people, but also positive effects to the development of China-Latin America relations.
The two countries have shared weal and woe and supported each other in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, further deepening their traditional friendship, Li added.
China, Li said, attached great importance to its relations with Cuba, and stood ready to work with Cuba to continuously carry forward the friendly tradition between the two countries, consolidate political mutual trust, and expand bilateral win-win cooperation and consequent results.
He said that China would work with Cuba to build the Belt and Road initiative and push forward anti-pandemic cooperation between the two sides, to promote China-Cuba relations and to take them to new levels in the new era.
Marrero expressed his warmest congratulations to China on behalf of the Cuban government and people, saying that Cuba “is ready to deepen economic and trade cooperation with China and bring it to a higher level.” (Xinhua/NAN)