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China defends Cuba ties, pledges nothing

1 min read

13:24UTC

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called China-Cuba cooperation open, transparent and legitimate on 11 August, and named no new assistance.

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Key takeaway

China defended its Cuba cooperation in words and offered no fuel, credit or clearing.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun described China-Cuba cooperation as "open, transparent and legitimate" on 11 August, after the 6 August US designations reached Cuban military attachés posted to China and Russia ¹. The statement named no new assistance of any kind.

Beijing rejected the characterisation and offered nothing beyond it. There is a reason to bother: the premise behind the designations, that dealing with the Cuban military economy is illegitimate, is the same premise that creates secondary exposure for any third country trading with a blocked Cuban entity, and China has firms that would rather not test it. Answering at a daily briefing costs nothing and commits nothing.

Havana needs fuel, credit and a bank that will clear its payments. None of the three appears in a spokesperson's sentence, which is the measure of how much of a patron Cuba currently has. The wording tracks Havana's own line, which called the July designation wave collective punishment .

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Guo Jiakun is a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry. On 11 August he called China-Cuba cooperation open, transparent and legitimate, a response to the 6 August OFAC designations that reached Cuban military attachés stationed in China and Russia. He named no new assistance for Cuba. The statement defends the existing relationship rather than announcing anything additional, which matters because Havana has repeatedly looked to Beijing and Moscow for support as US pressure grows.

Sources:14ymedio

Mentions:China →Guo Jiakun →Cuba →Russia →Havana →Beijing →OFAC →Moscow →

First Reported In

Update #14 · Havana makes the hiring middleman optional

14ymedio· 8 Sept 2026

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Different Perspectives

China

Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called China-Cuba cooperation open, transparent and legitimate on 11 August, after the 6 August designations reached Cuban military attachés posted to China and Russia. The statement named no new assistance.

Russia

The Russian embassy in Havana said on 31 August that expanding BRICS full membership is not on the agenda, declining the upgrade Cuba had sought before the New Delhi summit. Moscow remains Cuba's most reliable outside supplier but stopped short of the diplomatic step Havana wanted.

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic ordered nine Cuban diplomats and their families to leave on 13 August without stating a reason, a rupture Havana has not been given an explanation for. Neither government has since clarified what prompted the expulsion.

Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos

OCDH's Madrid-based survey found 94 per cent of Cubans in extreme poverty and 84 per cent distrusting Havana's own reform measures, fieldwork closed three weeks before Decree 325. The group monitors from exile because independent rights monitoring cannot operate legally on the island, and Lowdown could not reach a comparable on-island voice.

Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)

Rodríguez answered the 3 September designations on Cubadebate the same day without naming any of the five sanctioned entities, calling the wave collective punishment. Havana has used the same anti-blockade framing for each prior wave rather than contesting individual designations.

US Treasury (OFAC) and State Department

OFAC designated Banco Exterior de Cuba and four traders on 3 September; its SDN entry links the individual named alongside them only to Alejandro Castro Espín. The State Department's own announcement, not OFAC's listing, called that individual "a grandson of Raul Castro" and the designated entities exploiters of Cuba's resources "for the benefit of the regime."