8SEP

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 Russia⁠¹. 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·14ymedio

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

First Reported In

Update #14 · Havana makes the hiring middleman optional

14ymedio· 8 Sept 2026

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Different Perspectives

UN General Assembly

The Assembly passed last year's resolution against the US embargo by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, and votes again on 28 October. That count is the baseline against which Havana's lobbying claims and Washington's pressure will be measured.

Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina)

A Mexican Navy team inspected Grace at Progreso and found fuel in its ballast tanks, according to the US Coast Guard. The account of Mexico's role comes from Washington; the Mexican government's own position on the stop is not on record in the sources reviewed.

Pedro Monreal, independent Cuban economist

Monreal says the gazette contains no rule for the exchange-house licence ADT 64 received, so nobody knows how a second firm could apply. He says a representative rate would need at least ten houses in five provinces, Havana included.

Prisoners Defenders and OCDH (Madrid-based exile monitors)

Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, and OCDH logged at least 344 repressive actions that month. OCDH asked the European Union on 11 September to investigate possible trafficking in Cuba's medical brigade in Italy.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier

Uthmeier announced a no-bond state warrant for Raúl Castro on 19 October over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, after reopening the state investigation last year. The four men killed flew for a Miami exile group, and the warrant restricts Castro's travel rather than reaching him in Cuba.

Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)

Rodríguez said on 21 October that Washington is pressing governments to abstain or leave the hall in the 28 October UN vote and called Florida's Raúl Castro warrant worthless. Havana is presenting its October oil and trade rules as openings and the US measures as an energy blockade.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.