Castro’s death a reminder in China of changed communist axis
BEIJING — In the shadow of east Beijing’s soaring glass skyscrapers, elderly retirees still speak nostalgically about their Cuban brothers-in-arm, faraway comrades bound by communist solidarity.
But in central Beijing’s halls of power, Cuba is perhaps seen these days as something less romantic: a market for China’s booming private-sector exports.
Viewed from the world’s largest communist country, Fidel Castro’s death is a reminder of how the communist axis has changed beyond recognition since the ideologically charged era when the bearded revolutionary cut a dashing figure on the world stage alongside leaders like Mao Zedong.
After establishing diplomatic relations in 1960, the countries’ fortunes diverged over the ensuing decades: China began adopting free-market reforms in the 1980s and morphed into an economic powerhouse — Communist mostly in name — while Castro persisted with Marxism, Cuba’s economy hobbling on under U.S. sanctions.