Chinese President Xi Jinping ends his Latin American tour today with a symbolic visit to the barracks from which Fidel Castro launched the first armed assault of his communist revolution in 1953.
As part of his regional charm offensive, Xi extended a hand to his Cuban communist ally with the signing of 29 bilateral agreements ranging from a credit line to modernise the port of Santiago de Cuba to the development of golf courses on the Caribbean island.
He also signed agreements in finance, agriculture, industry, health, biotechnology, oil, energy, environment, education, telecommunications, use of cyberspace and digital television.
"China and Cuba, as fellow socialist countries, are closely linked by the same visions, ideals and goals," Xi said yesterday after receiving the Jose Marti awarded from President Raul Castro.
Cuba, the only one-party communist state in the Americas, began opening up its economy in 2008, but has not grown as much as hoped and could desperately use more Chinese investment.
The opening of the Cuban economy - which some analysts see as an effort to follow in China's footsteps - has created new opportunities to tighten bilateral ties, said Xi, who arrived Monday night in Havana.
China is already the Caribbean island's second-largest trading partner after Venezuela and its primary source of credit, filling the gap left by the US embargo on Cuba and its long-time exclusion from institutions such as the World Bank.
Coinciding with Xi's trip, about 50 Chinese entrepreneurs travelled to Havana to explore business opportunities, attracted by foreign investment incentives and the future Mariel free trade zone outside the capital.
"We want Chinese businessmen to invest in Cuba and partner with Cuban companies," said Cuba's director general for foreign investment, Deborah Rivas.
Chinese and Cuban officials inaugurated a factory yesterday that will use Chinese technology to make "biosensors" to monitor diabetics' blood sugar.
The Chinese and Russian leaders' tours have underlined their growing ties with a region considered the backyard of the United States, and bookended a summit of the BRICS group of emerging powers where calls for less US and European dominance of international affairs featured prominently.
The group - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - launched a new USD 50 billion development bank and USD 100 billion reserve fund designed to provide an alternative to the Western-led World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
