In a country where blackouts are already part of the landscape and inflation seems like an Olympic race without a finish line, the Cuban regime has found a new ideological pastime: studying “the thoughts of Xi Jinping on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.”
Yes, while the people struggle to obtain a liter of oil or a package of rice, the members of the Communist Party will meet until December 21 at the Higher School of State and Government Officials —that factory of dogmas that confuses "political education" with "brainwashing"— to analyze the theoretical insights of the Chinese leader.
According to the National Television News (NTV), the event has 95 participants, including academics, diplomats, and officials who will "delve into" topics such as "modernization with Chinese characteristics," "socialist-oriented market economy," and "the construction of the Party."
In summary: a combination of recycled Marxism with Asian marketing, presented as the antidote to the perpetual failure of the Cuban model.
The news would not be so tragicomic if it weren't for the regime's insistence on masking its stagnation with imported speeches.
After more than six decades of unfulfilled promises, Havana turns once again to Beijing in search of the "socialist miracle," convinced that by shifting the ideological emphasis, it can resolve an economic catastrophe that has nothing to do with theory, but rather with stubbornness.
Because, of course, nothing says “modernization” like a seminar on the thoughts of a lifelong leader from another communist party that controls the internet, censors dissent, and surveils its citizens with cameras and algorithms.
If that is what is called "Eastern wisdom," then Cubans could boast of having attained enlightenment a long time ago.
The Chinese ambassador, Hua Xin, presented during the event a collection of texts titled The Governance and Administration of China, a masterpiece of contemporary political thought —according to the official script— that aims to teach the world how to achieve socialist development without succumbing to “capitalist decadence.”
The curious thing is that while China produces cutting-edge technology and multiplies its millionaires, Cuba produces blackouts, epidemics, and misery.
But let's not be unjust. Perhaps the Cuban regime is not trying to replicate the entire Chinese model. Maybe it is only interested in the aspect of "governance," where the Party controls everything, the press obeys, and social media echoes what the leader says. In that regard, the synchronization between Havana and Beijing is already quite advanced.
The problem is that, while in China socialism is dressed in skyscrapers and electric cars, in Cuba it disguises itself as a ration book and scheduled blackouts.
Cuban bureaucrats seem convinced that China's success is due to ideology, rather than the economic pragmatism that they themselves disdain. They believe that studying Xi Jinping is enough for bread to reappear in the stores and for salaries to stop being merely decorative.
Since 2019, the School of Higher Leadership has conducted seven seminars on Xi's thinking, training over 340 officials in "Chinese wisdom."
The practical result: not a single factory operating, no effective reform, nor an idea to pull the country out of the abyss. However, there is a collection of ideological diplomas that must look splendid on the walls of the ministries.
Meanwhile, Cubans continue to hope that someone will address a more urgent concern: how to ensure a breakfast, lunch, and dinner without having to wait in four-hour lines or pay the equivalent of a monthly salary for a pound of chicken.
In its desperate attempt to find inspiration from outside, the regime forgets that neither Marxism with "Chinese characteristics," nor Maoism, nor any reinterpretation of socialism will save a system that refuses to relinquish power, deceit, and control.
If anything demonstrates this new seminar, it is that in Cuba, ideology is not studied: it is recycled. And Cuban socialism, unable to renew itself, has ended up resembling a museum of exotic doctrines, where the only thing that evolves is the rhetoric.
Havana doesn't need more imported ideas. It needs light, food, and freedom. But of course, that doesn't fit into any manual by Xi Jinping.
Filed under:
