China terms US allegations against Cuba ‘invented and groundless vilification’
Claiming the US blockade and sanctions are the main reasons for the economic problems faced by millions of Cubans today, China has warned against any military intervention.
Ministry of Interior building at Plaza de La Revolución, Havana. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
China rejected US allegations of Cuba being a state sponsor of terrorism as “invented and groundless vilification” to justify “blockade and illegal sanctions,” and demanded an end to all forms of US interference in the island nation.
During a regular press conference on Thursday, June 4, in Beijing, the official spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of External Affairs Mao Ning repeated that her country “firmly supports Cuba in safeguarding its national sovereignty and security and rejecting external interference.”
Mao Ning was answering a question on claims made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding Cuba during his recent appearance in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 2.
Rubio apparently dismissed intelligence reports presented during Joe Biden’s presidency saying there was no evidence that Cuba was involved in state-sponsored terrorism.
Rubio said he does not need any new evidence to establish that “all radical leftists violent terrorist groups in the Western hemisphere” have been supported by Cuba.
Donald Trump, during his first term as president, reinstated Cuba on the list of states sponsoring terrorism in 2021 just before leaving office. Cuba was removed from the said list in 2015.
Trump issued executive orders on January 29 and May 1, calling Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the US.”
The orders serve as a justification for a fresh set of blockades and sanctions against Cuba. Trump has also issued repeated threats of military intervention since resuming office last year.
China has rejectedthe indictment of former President Raúl Castro, calling it an “abuse of judicial means to exert pressure on Cuba.”
Read more: Cuba denounces US oil embargo as “act of war” at UN Security Council
Last month, a US court indicted Castro for “conspiracy and murder” during the downing of two hostile private aircrafts in Cuban airspace in 1996, when he was the defense minister of the country.
Baseless and illegal unilateral actions
During his hearing, Rubio also repeated allegations that Cuba is providing its land for Russian and Chinese intelligence operations against the US, despite previous denials issued by all concerned parties.
Rubio did not produce any evidence for these allegations either.
China has maintained that such allegations were baseless and used as a justification for illegal unilateral measures against Cuba’s revolutionary system.
The US blockade and decades-old sanctions have heavily affected the Cuban economy and the living standards of people there. This in turn has been cited as evidence of the failure of the socialist system by US officials, including Rubio, from time to time. Labels like “failed state” and pressure for “reforms,” all tend to be euphemisms for “regime change.”
Refuting Rubio’s claims of Cuba being a failed state, Mao Ning underlined that it is “decades old unilateral sanctions and embargoes [that] have wreaked havoc on Cuba’s economy and population.”
She reiterated that those US coercive measures have been “widely opposed by the international community,” and demanded that the US “should heed the call of the international community and immediately stop all its blockade, sanctions, coercion, and pressuring against Cuba.”
Rubio, instead, threatened stricter sanctions in the coming days, calling the current government in Cuba incapable of reform.
After months of energy blockade that caused massive disruptions in power supply, the US is now threatening foreign companies doing business in Cuba’s key sectors, such as tourism, to withdraw before June 5 or face secondary sanctions.
This is expected to create further suffering for hundreds of thousands of Cubans as they may lose their jobs. It is also expected to deprive the Cuban state of a source of revenue needed for importing essential supplies.
China has been providing aid to Cuba in various forms as it faces the severe impacts of the US blockade and sanctions. It has provided USD 80 million in monetary support, over 60,000 tonnes of rice, and installed hundreds of megawatts of solar panels.
