China-Cuba Relations & Challenges for the U.S.: Constructing a Strategic Triangle?

• In Event: Plural Pathways: Chinese Investment, Communist & Post-Communist Developmentalism

Abstract

This paper looks at the expansion of Cuba-PRC economic and political relations from the. perspective of a strategic triangle with the United States. First, building on seminal works about strategic triangles by Lowell Dittmer and asymmetric relations by Brantly Womack, the essay explores whether it is optimal from a theory perspective to frame the rising China-Cuba relations as part of a triangle with the United States. Second, the paper explores what type of triangle and dynamics emerge from the asymmetric economic and political interactions among the two great powers and the Caribbean island, which is attempting to build a mixed economy led by a Communist party in the vicinity of the United States. Third, the paper discusses the role of Chinese investments in the current process of economic reforms and political liberalization in Cuba in a context characterized by U.S. sanctions. In light of the covid-19 pandemic, the paper discusses the cooperation case of Chang-Heber, a joint venture between state companies from Cuba and the PRC to produce an anti-viral medicine based on Cuban interferon alfa 2B in Jilin province.

Author

• Arturo Lopez-Levy, Holy Names University