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Fidel Castro and “China's Lesson for Cuba”: A Chinese Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2007

Yinghong Cheng
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Abstract

This article examines the global impact of China's post-Mao transformation as reflected in Sino-Cuban relations. China and Cuba resumed their comradeship after Castro endorsed China's crackdown of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and since then Beijing has promoted its approach towards legitimizing the one-party regime through engaging in economic reforms and opening to the world to Havana. “China's lesson for Cuba” has been discussed by many Cubanists worldwide. However, the Chinese approach has posed a dilemma to Fidel Castro: he admires China's power but has doubts about the future of socialism in China. The article argues that Castro has so far adopted his old strategy for dealing with Soviet influence in the 1960s in his engagement with China: praising his political ally's power as the evidence of socialism's vitality for his domestic consumption, while significantly limiting the application of China's economic policies. But his more pragmatic successors, Raul Castro in particular, may adopt the Chinese approach.

Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 189 , March 2007 , pp. 24 - 42
Copyright
© The China Quarterly, 2007

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Dr William Ratliff of the Hoover Institution, who has been very supportive in my research on the interactions between China and Cuba, including this article.