HAVANA — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel released a statement on Sunday thanking the Chinese government for 15,000 tons of rice in aid.
Hua Xin, the Chinese ambassador to Cuba, released a statement describing the delivery as “the first batch of the 60,000-ton emergency aid donation.”
“That noble gesture of solidarity will reach millions of consumers,” Diaz-Canel wrote on X.
President Donald Trump’s administration has long considered the Chinese and Russian presence in Cuba as a national security threat.
Beijing’s crucial lifeline for Havana also includes strategic debt restructuring, credit lines, and investments in solar energy infrastructure.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Cuba accepted $100 million in U.S. aid to be sent and distributed by church charities.
“It must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with GAESA,” Rubio said about the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a Cuban military conglomerate that the Trump administration recently sanctioned.
Rubio said there is plenty of evidence of corruption and cited GAESA leaders “send their relatives to live in luxury in Madrid and even here in the United States.”
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