Instead of American capitalism in Cuba, we have the Chinese military

News that China is in talks with Cuba to establish a joint military training facility on the island has filled me with frustration and sadness over what could have been — both for the people of Cuba and for America’s relationship with our island neighbor.

I remember my March 2016 trip to Cuba, back when then-President Obama was in the process of normalizing diplomatic relations and the Cuban people were finally tasting the hope of freedom, capitalism and a better life. None of us knew then that the door would be slammed shut by then-President Trump just one year later.

At the time, I was mayor of Miami Beach and leading a delegation of Tufts University graduate students to the island, making me the first Miami official to travel to Cuba since the revolution. My trip coincided with Obama’s own historic trip when he delivered a message of hope and optimism to the Cuban people.

“In the United States,” he said, “we have a clear monument to what the Cuban people can build: it’s called Miami.”

Obama’s critics misunderstood his strategy. They assumed he was giving up on changing the situation in Cuba, when in reality he was giving us our best chance yet to transform Cuba into a free and open society. The old approach of extreme sanctions had failed, so he was trying something new: empowering the Cuban people with capitalist opportunities.

He knew that the most powerful force at our disposal is not hard power or diplomatic pressure, but rather what I like to think of as the American capitalist military. It is replete with a Navy comprised of American cruise lines; an Army made up of Hyatt, Hilton, Home Depot, McDonald’s and other retailers, and an Air Force of American Airlines, United, Delta and JetBlue.

This capitalist military would have rushed in and transformed Cuban society, bringing tourism and economic development to the island, raising the standard of living, and bringing an educational and cultural exchange that would have richly benefited both the U.S. and Cuba. 

Sadly, before our capitalist forces could invade, Trump shut the deal down, claiming that the Cuban government didn’t open up in a reciprocal manner. Even more sadly, Obama’s own vice president — now President Biden — has maintained Trump’s hard line on several policies.

Today, we’re reaping the rotten fruits of this ongoing miscalculation. Discussions between Cuban and Chinese officials to open a joint military training facility on Cuba’s northern coast are reported to be “at an advanced stage” and could lead to the “stationing of Chinese troops and other security and intelligence operations” just 100 miles off the Florida coast.

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Here we are replaying the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, only this time it’s the Chinese rushing in to fill the void that the U.S. has left behind.

This is all too preventable. In the 62 years since the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with the island nation, there have been virtually no indications that the strategy is working, yet there have been many clear examples of it backfiring for U.S. security and the well-being of the Cuban people. The only real hope came when Obama reversed course. If we had stayed on the path he set us on, we would face a very different situation today.

Instead of Russian and Chinese naval vessels in Havana Harbor, we could have cruise ships there with thousands of visiting American tourists. Instead of Chinese troops stationed in Cuba, we could have America’s great consumer brands stationed there, along with American customers spreading American dollars to empower locals to make the change they envision for their nation.

Instead, America has less influence, the Cuban people have less hope and China has more power in the Western hemisphere — right off our southern flank.

Let’s hope Biden — or whoever comes next — can learn the lessons of history and put us back on a course to normalization with Cuba. That way, the American capitalist military can do what it does best: spread freedom, opportunity and hope.

Philip Levine, a cruise industry entrepreneur, is a former two-term mayor of Miami Beach and one-time Democratic candidate for governor of Florida.