China and Cuba
Vanguard nations in the construction of a more just world order
People’s socialist revolutions triumphed in China in 1949 and in Cuba in 1959. In their subsequent evolution as revolutions in power seeking to construct socialism with characteristics appropriate for the conditions in their countries, they have arrived to be vanguard nations in the worldwide construction of an alternative world order. This dynamic occurs in the context of the increasing decadence of the capitalist world-economy and the neocolonial world-system, strengthening the tendency toward the emergence of an alternative order. The possible emerging international order is likely to be characterized by pluripolarity and respect for various models of development and modernization, depending on the sovereign decisions of nations and on the conditions found in their countries. And it likely will be characterized by norms favoring mutually beneficial trade, providing structural support for world peace and prosperity.
The historic leadership role of revolutionary Cuba in the Third World
In 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia, leaders of twenty-nine newly independent nations, including Sukarno, Nehru, and Nasser, met to put forth a united Third World strategy of opposition to European colonialism and Western imperialism, and to formulate the principle of economic cooperation among nations as the necessary foundation to world peace. In 1961, twenty-one governments of Africa and Asia plus Yugoslavia and Cuba met in Belgrade to establish in Non-Aligned Movement, which called for the democratization of the United Nations. In 1966, eighty-three governments and national liberation movements from Africa, Asia, and Latin America met in Havana for the First Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which named colonialism and imperialism as the source of Third World underdevelopment and defended nationalization as an effective strategy for attaining control over national economies. In 1974, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved a declaration for a New International Economic Order, which had been developed and proposed by the Non-Aligned Movement. The document advocated: the creation of raw materials producers’ associations to give raw materials exporting states control over prices; control of the activities of transnational corporations; and the promotion of cooperation among the nations of the Third World.
It was the classic period of the Third World project. It exploded on the world scene with the vantage point of the neocolonized. It sought structural reforms in the neocolonial world-system that would permit the true sovereignty of the newly independent nations.
Cuba was elected to serve as President of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983. The presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement provided a world stage for Fidel, from which he denounced the unjust structures of the international economic order, declared the need for reasoned structural reforms, and called the Third World peoples to unity of action in defense of their common interests.
On October 13, 1979, speaking to the UN General Assembly as the President of the Non-Aligned Movement, Fidel held developed countries responsible for the situation of global inequality and poverty, and he demanded the implementation of the UN declaration for a New International Economic Order. In 1983, as outgoing president of the Non-Aligned Movement, he called upon the peoples of the Third World to struggle: for the transformation of global economic structures that promote unequal exchange; for the cancellation of the Third World debt; for a form of industrialization that responds to the interests of the Third World; for agrarian reform and other necessary socioeconomic structural changes; for the adoption of measures by states that would control and limit the activities of transnational corporations; and for an elevation of the prestige of the United Nations. The struggle requires the unity of the peoples of the Third World, in spite of political and cultural differences, in recognition of their common experience of colonial domination. (See “Fidel speaks in the name of the colonized,” August 17, 2021).
Fidel had become the voice of neocolonized and the conscience of humanity. Not a large or powerful nation, Cuba nevertheless became a symbol of Third World dignity, which provides it with influence in the world affairs far greater than its economic power.
However, in the period of the Cuban presidency of NAM, the classic period of the Third World project was coming to an end. The Third World project was subverted by the deceitfulness of the Big Banks of the North and by the amoral myopia of the corporate elite, the international finance agencies, and the Western political establishment, which began to impose the neoliberal project on the governments of world, eliminating the limited protections of their economies, their sovereignty, and their natural resources that the Third World project had attained; and throwing Third World intellectuals, leaders, and politicians into confusion and division. Representatives of the Asian Tigers, with their policy of accommodationist adaptation to the Western powers and neoliberalism, highjacked the Non-Aligned Movement.
Cuban leadership in the renewal of the Third World project
Although the intellectuals pronounced the Third World project dead, in fact it remained alive in the enduring faith and hope of the suffering peoples of the Third World. The renewal of the Third World project was initially expressed implicitly, in the form of spontaneous rebellions of the peoples against the negative consequences of the imposition of neoliberal policies. Beginning in the late 1990s, street demonstrations, often obstructionist, protested the reduced value of the national currency and the high costs of water and bus transportation. In the midst of persistent political instability, exceptional leaders emerged with the intellectual and political capacity to link the concrete demands of the rebellion to neoliberal policies and to the subservience of politicians to the Western power elites; and to connect these questions to the classic demands of the Third World project.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the political awakening of the people led to the taking of political power through electoral processes by alternative political parties in Latin America. The new parties were successful in delegitimating the established political parties for their collusion with foreign economic interests. New political parties came to power in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. The political reality of Latin America and the Caribbean was transformed, as progressive governments emerged, some proclaiming that they were constructing a new form of socialism, which they called “Socialism for the Twenty-First Century.”
The Latin American political awakening stimulated a return in the Non-Aligned Movement to its classic agenda, and the leadership role of Cuba again is evident. The Non-Aligned Movement’s retaking of the classic agenda of the Third World project was evident at its Summit in Havana in 2006, when Cuban assumed the presidency for the second time. The Declaration of Havana called for a “more just and equal world order;” and it lamented “the excessive influence of the rich and powerful nations in the determination of the nature and the direction of international relations.” It rejected the neoliberal project as promoting global inequality and “increasing the marginalization of countries in development.” It affirmed the principles of the UN Charter, including the equality and sovereignty of nations, non-intervention in the affairs of other states, and “the free determination of the peoples in their struggle against foreign intervention.” It proclaimed that “each country has the sovereign right to determine its own priorities and strategies for development.” It called for the strengthening and democratic reform of the United Nations, and it proposed South-South cooperation as a complement to North-South cooperation.
The retaking of the classic political agenda of the Third World project occurred at a time in which the Non-Aligned Movement had reached 118 member states representing three-quarters of humanity. The debate at the 2006 Summit over the Declaration of Havana lasted all through the night, as the presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers of the governments of the Third World took to the podium, one after another, to denounce the unjust structures of the international world order and to declare the importance of Cuba to the world.
At the same time, the new progressive leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean began to speak of the need for a Latin American and Caribbean regional integration, which would be an alternative to U.S.-directed integration of the region. In 2004, Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro founded the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Its Joint Declaration maintained that integration in Latin America historically “has served as a mechanism for deepening dependency and foreign domination.” It proposed an alternative form of integration: “Only an integration based on cooperation, solidarity, and the common will to advance together with one accord toward the highest levels of development can satisfy the needs and desires of the Latin American and Caribbean countries, and at the same preserve their independence, sovereignty, and identity.” Since 2004, other nations have joined ALBA, and it is now known as Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP).
The process of Latin American unity and integration culminated in the formation in 2010 of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and again the leadership role of Cuba was evident. CELAC consists of the 33 governments of the Latin American and Caribbean region, which included governments with diverse ideological orientations, including the right. Nevertheless, at the 2014 Second Summit in Havana, the thirty-three governments unanimously supported a declaration that affirms many of the alternative principles of Latin American regional integration and the Third World project. The 2014 CELAC Declaration of Havana affirms a form of integration based on complementariness, solidarity, and cooperation. It calls upon the nations of the world to seek to overcome inequality and to establish a more equitable distribution of wealth. It expresses commitment to “the principle of the sovereign right of States to make best use of their natural resources, and manage and regulate them.” It declares: We “express our conviction regarding the relevance of direct foreign investment flows in our region and the need for them to contribute in an effective manner to the development of our countries and translate into greater wellbeing for our societies, without conditionalities being imposed and with respect for their sovereignty, in keeping with their national development plans and programs.”
Cuban diplomats were able to lead the formulation of a document that could attain unanimous support, because they understood well the common elements of the neocolonial situation. And they were able to find a discourse with universal appeal to the neocolonized, regardless of ideological orientation. Such insight was necessary, because Cuba certainly was not in a position to impose its will through economic pressure or military force.
In response to the emerging alternative process of Latin American integration and unity, U.S imperialism launched a counterattack, utilizing a new doctrine that it calls “unconventional war.” The U.S. unconventional war in Latin America began with the targeting of Venezuela in 2015, and it subsequently included the targeting of Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The tactics of unconventional war include economic blockades; financial and ideological support for opposition political parties and organizations; financing fascist gangs and destabilizing activities; enlisting the support of international organizations; and ideological attacks through the mainstream media and the social media. The unconventional war uses paid civilian actors who operate from the United States and the targeted countries. The ongoing unconventional war has damaged the economies of the targeted countries.
The unconventional war and the maneuverings of the OAS emboldened counterrevolutionaries in the region, and progressive forces in the region suffered setbacks, most notably in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Bolivia. As a result, the pace of the Latin American integration movement slowed considerably in the period 2017-2019. However, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua were able to persist. The Movement toward Socialism in Bolivia won new elections, reversing the OAS-supported legislative/military coup d’état. The setbacks in Brazil and Argentina were reversed through victories in new elections, and there were new progressive electoral victories in Mexico, Honduras, and Colombia. These post-2019 dynamics have given rise to a revitalization of the process of Latin American regional integration.
Chinese foreign policy and the emergence of a pluripolar world
In the 1980s, China initiated economic reforms which expanded space for private enterprises, foreign and domestic. The Chinese economy remains a socialist economy, in that the economy is directed by a state controlled by people’s assemblies, in accordance with the development plan formulated by the people’s government. At the same time, by permitting the laws of the market to express themselves in determined sectors, economic productivity is greatly enhanced. Armed with its socialist-oriented planned market economy model, China has experienced a dynamic economic growth. (See “China models a new type of socialism: The most advanced example of a new socioeconomic formation,” June 10, 2022).
In 2009, China joined with Brazil, Russia, and India to form an intergovernmental economic-commercial association, which became BRICS in 2010 with the inclusion of South Africa. BRICS has increasingly been oriented to developing commercial relations of mutual benefit, leaving behind global economic structures that generate global inequalities. BRICS has held fourteen summits since its founding, with the most recent being on June 23, 2022. The BRICS countries represent 41% of the world’s population and 24% of the world GDP.
Since 2012, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China has undertaken a foreign policy based on the principle of win-win cooperation and mutually beneficial trade. Because of Xi’s foreign policy, China’s economic rise should not be seen as ascent in the capitalist world-economy, as occurred with respect to the spectacular ascent of the USA from 1763 to 1965. Rather, China today is constituting itself as a leading force for the construction of an alternative world-system based on economic cooperation among nations, gradually leaving behind the exploitative core-peripheral relations of the Western-centered capitalist world-economy.
Thus, there has been in the last quarter century two significant developments. First, the emergence of China as a world economic power and the implementation by China of an alternative foreign policy that seeks mutually beneficial trade among nations. Secondly, the establishment in Latin America and the Caribbean of alternative structures of regional integration based on mutual respect, seeking to bypass U.S.-directed regional integration. These two significant developments were brought together in 2014, when Xi Jinping met with the heads of state of the nations of CELAC, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, to establish the China-CELAC Forum, and he subsequently visited Venezuela and Cuba. In an interchange with Latin American journalists, the Chinese President described China as a large nation, but not a global power, and in a phase of development similar to Latin America and the Caribbean nations. He maintained that China is seeking to develop through trade based on cooperation and win-win relations of mutual benefit. He defended South-South cooperation as the engine that can drive the autonomous and sustainable development of the underdeveloped nations, and he observed that the expanding economic and social relation between China and CELAC is an example of this necessary South-South cooperation.
On September 21, 2021, Xi Jinping addressed the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. He declared that the peoples of the world, more than ever before, desire peace, development, equality, and social justice, and they are determined more than ever to attain these hopes through win-win cooperation. With this declaration, Xi gives emphasis to the cooperation of the governments of all regions of the world in China’s foreign policy of developing mutually beneficial trade, as the foundation for a sustainable world order.
The Chinese President in his General Assembly address advocated for principles that have been the building blocks of the foreign policy of the Asian giant. He declared:
“we must strengthen solidarity and promote mutual respect and win-win cooperation in conducting international relations. A world of peace and development should embrace civilizations of various forms, and must accommodate diverse paths to modernization. . . . We need to pursue dialogue and inclusiveness over confrontation and exclusion. We need to build a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, equality, justice and win-win cooperation.”
In 2022, fifteen nations of east Asia and southeast Asia formed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. These fifteen countries, which include China, constitute nearly one third of the world-economy.
The Arab states have become more oriented to mutually beneficial economic relations, with the result that Saudi Arabia will likely be less oriented to U.S. economic interests. Twelve Arab states currently have a strategic partnership with China. In December 7, 2022, the first China-Arab States Summit and the first China-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit were held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in which Xi Jinping gave the inaugural addresses. Xi Jinping was an official state visitor of Saudi Arabia from December 7 to December 10.
These worldwide developments point to the possible emergence of alternative world-system. The emerging world-system is different from the capitalist world-economy not only with respect to its structural and normative reinforcement of mutually beneficial trade and cooperation, but also in the fact that it is an emerging pluripolar world-system. Scholars have identified seven or eight civilizations that continue to have vibrancy in the world today. Observing the structures of regional integration that are emerging in practice today, we could identify five emerging poles: East and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Mideast, Africa, and USA/Europe.
Strengthening ties between Cuba and China
A delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba traveled to China for various days of high-level interchange among the leaders of the communist parties of the two nations, which included the signing of bilateral agreements and visits to sights of interest. The Cuban delegation was headed by Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Upon receiving Morales Ojeda, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang pointed out the common interest of China and Cuba in pragmatic financial and economic collaboration dedicated to the construction of socialism. The Chinese Prime Minister also expressed that he is confident that Cuba will attain new and greater achievements in the advancement of the socialist cause. He reaffirmed China’s continued support of the Cuban struggle for its independence and sovereignty, against the economic, financial, and commercial blockade imposed by the United States.
Morales Ojeda described on Twitter his fruitful interchange with Li, which discussed the common interest of China and Cuba in strengthening economic, commercial, and financial cooperation of mutual benefit between the Asian giant and the Caribbean island nation as part of the road toward the construction of socialism. Morales Ojeda also expressed Cuban support of China’s initiatives with respect to global security and global civilization. (See “China’s Global Security Initiative: The security of each is rooted in the common security of all,” March 3, 2023; and “China proposes Global Civilization Initiative: Diverse development paths and dialogue across civilizations,” March 21, 2023).
A highlight of the visit of the Cuban delegation to China was its participation in the Fifth Theory Seminar between the Communist Party of Cuba and the Communist Party of China. The Seminar focused on challenges in the construction of socialism, including such issues as the development of the economies of the two nations, political and ideological work, and the role of youth in continuing their socialist legacies. Aylín Alvárez, First Secretary of the National Committee of the Cuban Union of Young Communists, wrote in her Twitter account that “the role of youth in the continuity of the socialist legacy was amply discussed,” and she affirmed that “we of the new generations will be faithful to the history of struggle of our peoples.”
In his inaugural address to the Theory Seminar, Morales Ojeda pointed out that the success attained by China in its development, under the leadership of the Communist Party and Xi Jinping, “are and will continue being an important point of reference for our work.” He pointed out that, for Cuba, the development and diversification of its economy, connecting it to the international economy, is a high priority. Morales Ojeda noted that Cuba counts on the systematic support of China, inasmuch as their still exists potential not yet tapped for complementary and bilateral economic and commercial relations.
The intense agenda of work of the Cuban delegation included dialogue with the authorities of the Chinese Party and Government, which focused on intensifying bilateral ties and the construction of socialism. And it included an interchange with members of the Cuban state mission and with Cuban students in China.
The Cuban delegation had the opportunity to visit the site in Shanghai where the Communist Party of China was born, commemorated in a museum that exhibits documents, objects, and historic images of that moment. Aylín Alvárez described as “beautiful” the founding site of the Chinese Communist Party, and she pointed out the attractive employment of information technologies to exhibit the materials related to the historic event.
Remembering Fundamental Historical Facts:
The Founding of the Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China was founded in 1921 by two professors at Peking University, Chen Duxin and Li Dazhao. Chen was a leading intellectual in the New Culture Movement, which rejected Confucian values and institutions, because of the evident incapacity of the Confucian sociopolitical order to respond effectively to Western commercial and military penetration of China. Chen proposed the total transformation of Chinese culture, basing his projections on a mixture of Western ideas, including liberalism, democratic reformism, and utopian socialism.
When the Western powers at the 1919 Versailles peace conference transferred the Chinese province of Shandong to Japan, Chen and pro-Western intellectuals viewed it as an endorsement of the existing imperialist world order. They therefore turned away from Western liberalism and toward Western socialism and Marxism. They began to study Chinese translations of the works of Marx and Lenin, which appeared in China in the period 1919 to 1921. Marxism-Leninism provided the foundation for the rejection of both Confucianism and Western imperialism, and it provided a basis for a concrete program of action.
Chen converted to Marxism in late 1919, and in 1920, he and other Chinese Marxists organized small communist groups in the major cities of China. These groups provided the basis for the founding meeting of the Communist Party of China in 1921, which was attended by twelve delegates representing fifty-seven members, mostly students.
Among those present at the founding meeting of the Communist Party of China was 27-year-old Mao Zedong, the son of a well-off peasant and an intellectual and organizer. Mao was one of two delegates from the southern province of Hunan. After the founding meeting, Mao dedicated himself to various activities in Hunan: recruitment of Party members; the organizing and directing of an alternative school dedicated to unifying the intellectual and working classes; and the organization of workers, in accordance with the orthodox Marxist emphasis on the working class. Mao would develop a heterodox Marxism that saw the peasants as central in the revolutionary process, taking into account the conditions of China, which included a small and weak industrial bourgeoisie and a small industrial proletariat.
Mao was among the primary leaders of the Communist Party of China in its twenty-eight-year journey to political power, which included alternate uneasy alliances and conflict with Chinese nationalists. Highlights of the journey included: the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi from 1931 to 1934; the Long March of 1934-1935; the creation of study groups from 1935 to 1937; the guerrilla struggle against the Japanese occupation from 1937 to 1945; and the civil war between the communists and the nationalists from 1945 to 1949. It was Mao Zedong who proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. (See “Mao: The foundation of China today,” June 14, 2022).
Chinese support for the Cuban water infrastructure
A Chinese donation for the strengthening of Cuba’s program of confrontation of the current drought was officially received in a ceremony on April 17 in Havana, presided by Inés María Chapman Waugh, Vice Prime Minster of Cuba, and Ma Hui, ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Cuba. Deborah Rivas Saavedra, Vice-Minister of the Cuban Ministry of International Commerce and Foreign Investment, and Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez, President of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, also were present.
The donation consists of 449 trucks, equipment, and machines of thirty-three types, including high pressure cleaning trucks, water supply pipes, and equipment for the construction and maintenance of aqueducts and draining systems. Previously, in three donations in 2011, 2016, and 2018, the Chinese government donated more than 700 pieces of machinery and equipment valued at more than thirty million dollars for the rehabilitation of the water infrastructure in the provincial capitals of the country.
Presently, approximately 480,000 persons in Cuba are affected by the drought, which is expected to be alleviated when the rains of the wet season begin next month. Providing support for infrastructure development in the countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia is one of the priorities of Chinese foreign policy.
Conclusion
We see the signs today of the possible emergence of a more just, democratic and sustainable world-system, characterized by pluripolarity and mutually beneficial trade among nations. China is playing a leading role in this process, because of its large and vibrant economy, and because of its foreign policy based on win-win cooperation. Cuba also is playing a leading role in the construction of an alternative world-system, in spite of the small size and weakness of its economy. Cuba has much influence in the world because of its leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement, in both its classic period and at present; its leading role in the process of Latin American and Caribbean union and integration; its clear formulation of the principles that must guide a sustainable world order; and its persistent defense of its sovereignty and its socialism in the face of six decades of economic blockade and the current unconventional war.
Cuba is a powerful example for the world, especially the neocolonized peoples of the Third World. A small nation under continuous attack, Cuba is a symbol of the Third World struggle.
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