Despite doing business with the entire world, the communist Castro dictatorship claims U.S. sanctions are a “blockade” on Cuba. China just exposed that the only blockade in Cuba is internal.
Cuban independent journalist Rafaela Cruz reports in Diario de Cuba:
China shows that, in Cuba, the ‘blockade’ is internal
In September, the Cuban Government closed the “Chinese Costco” in Havana, an establishment like the thousands that can be found in any country and that had managed, to its customers’ surprise and joy, to open its doors in Cuba to sell everything that the Chinese sell wherever they go, from hardware to miscellaneous goods, textiles, shoes and food.
The closure of China Import —its real name— was ordered because inspectors “discovered” that dollars were traded there, taxes were evaded, and undocumented workers were hired; that is, the same things being done in private businesses all across the country, as it is the only way for them to survive the legal and fiscal morass to which Castroism subjects them.
In fact, the Government closed that first Chinese store (who authorized it in the first place was never disclosed) to make it clear that those Asian stores selling products of dubious quality, but at great prices, which have triumphed on the world’s retail markets, are not welcome in Cuba, thus sending a political message, given the well-known support of the Chinese State for the expansion of these businesses throughout the world… except in Cuba and probably North Korea.
According to the Financial Times, the Chinese Government has lost patience with the country, not as a direct reaction to this symbolic offense, in any case small, but due to the Castroist policy of blocking its market, exasperated by Havana’s refusal to undertake serious liberal economic reform, as the country teeters on the verge of humanitarian disaster.
Given that Castroist government’s political decisions make it difficult for it to trade with the United States, China is the obvious alternative. Trade implies bilaterality, giving in order to receive, but before giving one has to produce, and that is where Castroism fails, as it is more accustomed to being given political allies than to seriously participating in international trade.
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