Recently, Díaz-Canel, first secretary of the CPC Central Committee and president of Cuba, paid a state visit to China. How will China and Cuba, both socialist countries, continue their traditional friendship and deepen the development of China-Cuba relations in the new era? In the face of the development challenges brought by the current protracted international situation to many developing countries, in what areas will China and Cuba cooperate in? What role will this play in promoting the comprehensive partnership between China and Latin America? Let's take a look at this week's Blue Hall Watch.
Three "steadfastness" in China-Cuba relations
President Xi Jinping used three "unswerving" to describe the continuous development of China-Cuba relations for 62 years - "unswervingly deepen friendship with all sincerity, unswervingly carry out mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and unswervingly be a partner in reform and development".
At present, China-Cuba relations have become a model of solidarity and cooperation among socialist countries and sincere mutual assistance among developing countries.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, China is Cuba's largest trading partner, and Cuba is China's second largest trading partner in the Caribbean. In the face of the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the global economic downturn, China-Cuba trade volume still achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.2% in 2021.
Han Han, Secretary-General of the Center for Cuban Studies of the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Both sides are developing countries, and our two countries and even their peoples have similar pursuits for the development of the international social order, and the two sides have put forward relevant views and consensus in many fields and on many issues, including opposing all hegemonism and power politics, especially promoting changes in the inequality of the international multilateral mechanism. Cuba supports China's global development initiative and is willing to strengthen relevant cooperation with China under multilateral mechanisms such as the Group of Friends of the Initiative and the Group of 77 to promote the deepening of the agreement. During this meeting, (both sides) also proposed to work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind and a community with a shared future for China and Cuba. In addition, in terms of the ruling party's experience in building the new country, the two parties are willing to continue to strengthen institutionalized exchanges, and I would like to say that during this visit, the level of participation and meeting between the two sides, as well as the breadth of the field, and even the close and in-depth content of the exchange, have all further developed compared with the past.
China and Cuba share the same ideals and support each other
Located in the northern part of the Caribbean Sea, Cuba is the largest island country in the West Indies and the only socialist country in the Western Hemisphere. In 1959, Fidel Castro led the Cuban people to establish a revolutionary government and began to implement the socialist system. However, a hostile policy of the United States ensued. In 1962, the United States imposed an economic and financial embargo and a trade embargo against Cuba. In 1996, the United States passed the Helms-Burton Act, which extended the scope of the attack to foreign companies with economic relations with Cuba, and this blockade continues to this day. Since the Biden administration took office in January last year, the United States has twice extended the validity of the Trade Against Enemy Act, which is the legal basis for the blockade and embargo against Cuba.
CCTV reporter Huang Da: From fuel, food, daily necessities to medicines, the US blockade against Cuba covers almost all areas, and the draft resolution entitled "The Economic Blockade Must End" submitted by Cuba to the United Nations released in October this year shows that in the first seven months of 2021, the US economic blockade caused economic losses to Cuba amounted to $2,557.5 million, and the 60-year blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba has caused Cuba's economic losses to exceed $150 billion.
Since 1992, China has consistently voted in the General Assembly in favour of Cuba's resolutions against the United States embargo. The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held on 3 November this year, once again adopted a resolution by an overwhelming majority of 185 votes in favour, 2 against and 2 abstentions, calling on the United States to end the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba, and this was the 30th consecutive vote in favour of China. At the meeting between the two heads of state, President Xi Jinping once again stressed that China will continue to firmly support Cuba in defending national sovereignty and opposing foreign interference and blockade.
At the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council in June this year, Cuba made a joint statement on behalf of nearly 70 countries opposing interference in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights. At the 77th session of the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, Cuba, on behalf of 66 countries, once again spoke out for China on human rights issues.
The same philosophy and pursuit have laid a solid foundation for China and Cuba to support each other on the road of development, and also provided strength for the two countries to jointly solve the current development problems.
Addressing Current Challenges In which areas will China-Cuba cooperation continue to exert strength?
At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is hitting tourism, one of Cuba's key sources of the economy, the continued depreciation of the global currency and repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have exacerbated Cuba's already worsening inflation, while unemployment has also increased. Cuba's domestic electricity supply, which mainly relies on traditional fossil energy, has also experienced a shortage of power supply due to rising energy prices and aging power generation equipment.
Cuba's huge line-up of foreign visits, including the Minister of Economy, Minister of Foreign Trade and Minister of Energy and Minerals, shows Cuba's urgent desire to solve the current development difficulties through economic and trade cooperation.
In this regard, China and Cuba clearly put forward the proposition of "strengthening cooperation in biotechnology, renewable energy, cybersecurity and other fields" in the joint statement of the two countries. Díaz-Canel also said that Cuba will use China as a model to creatively face challenges and achieve the goal of building socialism.
Eduardo Regalado, researcher at the Cuban Center for International Political Studies: China's cooperation with Cuba is multi-field, and it is difficult to find a certain area without cooperation with China. At a time of complexity in the international situation, particularly in the context of the economic embargo against Cuba, it is essential to strengthen such cooperation. The visit brought a series of favorable agreements and marked a new moment in the field of bilateral economic cooperation, not only in terms of medical services, food, and technical cooperation for Cuba's energy transition, but also opened a new chapter in the further expansion of cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. This will benefit us all. Cuba also wants to be deeply involved in global development initiatives, and we want to have a seat at the table on this multilateral project that China is pursuing.
CCTV reporter Huang Da: Cuba is the first country in the Western Hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with New China, and China-Cuba cooperation is providing impetus for building socialism in line with their respective national conditions, and also bringing positive demonstration effects to cooperation between China and Latin American countries. This time, the two sides have taken the promotion of China-Latin America relations as one of the goals of the next development of China-Cuba relations. While some countries regard Latin America as a backyard and continue to meddle in their internal affairs through interference, Latin American countries are voting more and more confidence to China. In recent years, the trade volume between China and Latin America has been growing, and in 2021, it exceeded 450 billion US dollars for the first time. Through the China-Latin America Forum and other channels, China-Latin America cooperation, which is based on mutual respect, the principle of mutual benefit and win-win, openness and inclusiveness, and common development as the goal, will continue to inject new impetus into the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and Latin America.
Producer丨Sun Yanfeng, Zhang Lin, Ji Yi, Wang Yu, Fan Hao
Reporter丨Huang Da, Zhu Ruomeng, Hou Jiaqi, Kong Luyuan
Videography丨Li Jun
Editing丨Lu Kuoda
Source: CCTV News Client