News · International
Bruno Rodríguez travels to China for the second time in 2026 after sanctions on two Chinese firms
Cuba's foreign minister began an official visit to China on November 10, running until the 13th, as «special envoy of the Party and the Government», five days after Washington sanctioned two Chinese state corporations for supplying surveillance equipment and military components to Havana.
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, will hold official talks with senior Chinese officials, according to Granma, which frames the trip within «cooperation in building a Cuba-China community of shared future». The official statement acknowledges that Beijing «is a strategic partner of great importance for Cuba and one of its main collaborators in sectors key to the country's economic and social development».
This is Rodríguez's second visit to China as special envoy in 2026. The first was in February, when he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and senior Communist Party official Liu Haixing; according to Diario de Cuba, that trip came a month after the end of Venezuelan oil supplies to the island, and Beijing then expressed support for Cuba's sovereignty and security.
On the Thursday before the trip, the United States sanctioned the state corporations China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC) and Beijing H&C Technologies Co., Ltd., identifying them as suppliers of surveillance equipment and military components to Cuba's Armed Forces Ministry through the importing company Duna S.A., sanctioned in August over its links to military imports from China and Russia.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said cooperation between Beijing and Havana is «completely legitimate and transparent», rejected US attempts to «disrupt and sabotage» it, and criticised the sanctions as an exercise of «extraterritorial jurisdiction» with no basis in international law. On the visit, he said his government is ready to «maintain a deep exchange of views with the Cuban side».
The news coincided in Cuban state media with an interview with the Chinese ambassador in Havana, Hua Xin, broadcast on the podcast of Cubadebate's director, Randy Alonso. The diplomat argued that «China's development is due in large part to reform and opening up» and to having opened «the door to every country in the world», and added the caveat that the state press put in its headline: «persisting in the leadership of the Communist Party».
The economic backdrop to the trip, according to Infobae, is a relationship marked by delays and unmet earlier commercial commitments that have made Chinese lenders and investors wary, with companies conditioning their involvement on payment guarantees. Diario de Cuba notes that through 2026 Beijing has sent donations of rice, solar panels and financial assistance that have not pulled Cuba out of its crisis.
Sources: Granma · Diario de Cuba · 14ymedio · Infobae
Data updated: 2026-11-11T04:15:00.000Z