China’s continued mutually beneficial ties with Cuba will not be affected by any third party, a Foreign Ministry official said in light of reports suggesting that U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba on Sunday would impact the long-standing China-Cuba relations.
"China and Cuba have long enjoyed friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a press briefing in Beijing on Monday. "We will deepen our relations with Cuba, and this does not target nor affect any third party."
"Mutual benefit and win-win results are dominant features of international relations in today's world," she added.
Hua expressed hope that Obama's visit to Cuba--the first sitting U.S. president to do so in 88 years--will help bring the people of both countries together and usher in peace and stability in the region.
"We are glad to see the normalization of the relations between the two countries," she said. "We hope that both sides can consolidate the current momentum."
Hua also called for Washington to lift its decades-long blockade on Cuba as soon as possible. The U.S. embargo was imposed following a revolution led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Fulgencio Batista in 1953.
U.S.-Cuba relations have since been characterized by hostility and resentment until Obama recently renewed diplomatic ties and offered an end to the trade embargo.
Prior to Obama's trip, the Cuban government led by Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's younger brother, ruled out the restoration of full bilateral ties with the United States in exchange for political concessions.
Havana stressed that the economic and financial blockade of the island remains in force despite new measures announced by the White House easing aspects of the embargo.
"Ultimate rapprochement with Cuba requires the United States to refrain from imposing its ideology on others and to treat others as equals," the Xinhua News Agency said in an opinion piece.
China has long had friendly relations with Cuba's Communist Party. Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the island nation in 1993 and 2001, which was followed by his successor, Hu Jintao, in 2004. In his official trip to Cuba in July 2014, President Xi Jinping visited the barracks where Fidel Castro launched the first armed assault of the revolution.