Cuba expects more investment from China as Xi visits

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday evening began a two-day visit to Cuba, getting the island’s hopes up that China will finally invest in the country after a number of unfulfilled deals, Reuters reported. Communist-run China and Cuba are close political allies and generous trade credits have made Beijing the island’s largest creditor and second-biggest trade partner after Venezuela at US$1.4 billion last year. China has rescheduled Cuba’s government and commercial debt, believed to top US$6 billion. But large investment agreements for the nickel industry, signed in 2000, another in hotels, and a deal to expand an oil refinery agreed five years ago, have not materialized.