Potential Danger in Domestic Debate Constructing a Cuban Shangri-la: Online Chinese Perceptions of Cuba and Implications for China and the World

摘要

Although China and Cuba are generally seen as intimate partners, their socialist ideals have begun to diverge from each other since they launched their respective reforms, and Cuba's importance to China in the Western hemisphere is also gradually being replaced by larger economic powers such as Brazil and Mexico. How do the ordinary Chinese perceive Cuba and the Cubans and how does this perception deviate from the official viewpoint? Given the limited knowledge the Chinese have about Cuba, how and why are such perceptions and discrepancies formed? What would be the impact on and implications for future Sino-Cuban relations, Sino-Latin American relations and US-Cuba relations? Would China have to face up to a crisis, the origins of which are in the seemingly risk-free construction of a faraway Latin American image? Presently, the Internet in China is increasingly acknowledged as a meaningful primary source to understand public opinion in general and that of global issues in particular. Using systematic, qualitative research on the Chinese online community, this article addresses the questions raised and concludes by describing the discrepancies between the official and popular Chinese perceptions of Cuba and their implications.