Cuba and China: A Communist Understanding? (A posting of mine from last year) dragonstrail.wordpress I just dont get it some times. Everybody on the left loves Cuba and will jump through hoops defending her. So do I because Im a revolutionary socialist. But the same people are some of the first to cast aspersions on China or at least keep China at arms length. Why should this be? Both Cuba and China are single party states ruled by Communists. Both have extensive, some would say entrenched state bureaucracies. Both have economies that are still to a large extent centrally planned and dominated by State Owned Enterprises, although Chinas is more market oriented and Cubas more of a command economy. Both suppress political dissent and arrest and jail vocal opponents of the government. Both have various limitations on internet access and other forms of expresion. Both have local forms of popular democracy but a centralized, unitary form of governance. Both have done miracles providing food, medical care and education to their people. Compare Cuba to other Caribbean countries and China to India to see the difference between socialist and capitalist countries in terms of reductions in poverty, illness and hunger and increases in education they both enjoy. Moreover China has been a lifeline for Cuba giving it interest free loans and favorable trade deals. China is Cubas second largest trade partner after Venezuela and most of the trade with Venezuela is for oil. So why are many on the left so reluctant to embrace China while so eager to defend Cuba? Some will say, well look at China its gone capitalist, it pollutes, it allows private companies to exploit their workers, etc., etc. all the while Cuba is studying Chinas successes to see if they can be emulated. Cuba regards China as a fraternal socialist country. If Cuba recognizes China as socialist why dont most Western leftists? The following article offers a useful review of Cuban-Chinese relations. It ends, mistakenly, by stating that the “China-Cuba relationship is not based on socialist solidarity but on business.” That is not true. If Cuba was not a socialist country ruled by a Communist Party, China would not be doing all that the article states. Both China and Cuba have fundamentally similar economies and political structures. They understand each other and can consolidate and coordinate their relationship accordingly. There are also business interests. How could there not be? But they are of mutual benefit and not capitalist in nature. So why is there such a deep misunderstanding and mistrust of China among many Cuba friendly Western leftists? A lot of it is due to sheer ignorance. Some of it is due to drinking the corporate medias kool-aide about China and accepting its false narrative. It is debatable which predominates. dragonstrail.wordpress/2013/04/09/cuba-china-communist-understanding/comment-page-1/#comment-175
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:42:35 +0000
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