Jottings from the Granite Studio

Given his retirement–and a handy staff of ghost writers–Comrade Fidel casts his thoughts to Chinese history with a few digs thrown in on separatism of the Taiwanese and Tibetan varieties. No real shockers here, pretty much boilerplate Party line/Marxist theoretical reductionism, though for obvious reasons Fidel focuses particular attention on US support for Chiang Kai-shek and the American involvement in Tibetan independence movements of the 1950s. (Apparently the ex-El Presidente and I have the same nightstand reading list as well as taste in cigars–I read Kenneth Conboy’s The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet last spring.)

At first, I thought it odd that his historical narrative stops roughly at 1949 before moving on to contemporary political tussles, but then it started to make sense.

In 1960, Cuba became the first Latin American country to recognize the PRC. But in the pragmatic world of big brother politics, Castro needed his friends in Moscow too much and Khrushchev’s views of Beijing were well-known. Following the Sino-Soviet split, the Cuban leader had little good to say about Mao’s regime, and publicly criticized China’s 1979 invasion of Vietnam. Relations have since normalized, and in recent years Cuba has been reaching out to Beijing trying to cash in a little on the China boom. But Fidel’s never been one to let a grudge go, so who knows?

Nevertheless, I’m sure Beijing is pleased as punch to receive the firm support of Cuba’s revolutionary strongman emeritus.