[Marxism] Chinese think tank on Cuba: U.S. must rethink its policies toward Cuba"

[Walter Lippmann]

It's fascinating to see how different human beings can read 
the same material and interpret them in divergent ways. 

There was no claim made here that China supported Cuba for 
revolutionary reasons. It's notable, however, that the team
of Chinese translators strongly support the Cuban Revolution, 
and the Chinese government sees fit to commission and to 
publish a Chinese edition of the most articulate contemporary
exponent of that Cuban revolutionary tradition. A peculiar way 
the Chinese government has of serving as, to use Sartesian's 
winged phrase, "a bulwark, for retaining the status quo."

So if someone wishes to denounce China for lack of revolutionary
motivation, that's fine: what ever floats your boat, but that
was neither a motive, much less the motive, attributed to China.
They do what they do for NATIONAL reasons, and STRATEGIC reasons.

Why would the Chinese government go to all the time and trouble to
translate Fidel Castro's latest production into Chinese, just for
nostalgia's sake and so they could get themselves together for a
round of singing "Auld Lang Sayn"?

William Ratliff is an opponent of the Cuban Revolution. He doesn't
want anything to happen which would strengthen the Cuban Revolution.
William Ratliff just recently went to Cuba where he met with one of
the best-known dissident leaders and together they complained that
Bush hasn't followed the example of Richard Nixon in going to China
and normalizing relations with the People's Republic. 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/76416

It's not necessary to agree with Ratliff to understand that an
end to the US blockade of Cuba would be good thing for Cuba. Cuba
wants and needs and end to the blockade, though its leadership is
certain to know that an end to the blockade would bring about more
problems and different problems.

One wonders why there's so much rage against those who strengthen
Cuba's hand vis-a-vis the United States? That's precisely what the
Chinese and Vietnamese are doing by maintaining such strong ties
with Cuba. Even on the basis of Chinese NATIONAL interests, this
would apply, because the rise of China, a Third World nation, to
modern world power is a good thing in and of itself. Some people
may not recall that's it's been a very short time since China won
its national independence: October 1, 1949, a rather short period
of historic time for a country which is THOUSANDS of years old.

According to Sartesian, China is a bulwark of the status quo. But
by providing all that support to Cuba, for its own nationalistic 
or national reasons, is this how China supports the status quo?
Sartesian's logic is rather confuddled, it would seem to me.

Perhaps the critics would prefer that instead of trading with 
Cuba, China and Vietnam should stop doing so, so as to avoid the
allegation that they are "bulwarks of the status quo"?


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
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SARTESIAN writes:
Ratliff is not "fretting about"  China's influence in Latin America, 
he is welcoming it as an alternative, an opposition, to Chavez's 
"destabilizing" influence.

The thrust of the article is not China's support for the revolutionary
tradition of Cuba, but rather China as a partner, and a bulwark, for
retaining the status quo.

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     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
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