- The Hub
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, attend the talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo.
Cuba’s authoritarian alliances are a threat to democracy. Cuba's alliances with China and Russia forge a global culture of impunity for atrocity crimes.
Alliances between authoritarian regimes are one of the greatest global threats facing democracy today. Collaboration between autocrats makes them stronger, and more effective at surveilling, isolating, and persecuting human rights defenders. Two such alliances are between Cuba and China, and Cuba and Russia. And the effects of these alliances on the pro-democratic Cuban movement are stark.
China dominates the telecommunications sector in Cuba, including the expansion of internet access on the island that has been done with Chinese technology and advice. This is concerning for the future of internet freedom in Cuba. China’s Great Firewall has managed to erase critical historical events, including the Tiananmen Square massacre, from the memory of new generations. China has 900 million internet users and only between 3 to 15 percent manage to circumvent the Great Firewall through use of virtual private networks (VPNs).
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