The state owes them a lot of money and lacks production capacity, unlike MSMEs, says entrepreneur Wu Han
14ymedio, Madrid, 28 November 2025 — Chinese businesspeople attending the Havana International Fair (Fihav 2025) have set their sights on Cuba’s private sector. Tired of non-payments, the only thing that currently unites them with the state is almost a feeling of compassion. “We have had a lot of problems and are looking for solutions. It’s not that we want to abandon state-owned companies; we have cooperated over many years. Cuba is going through a difficult situation right now, and we don’t want to put pressure on them,” says Wu Han, representative of the Auto Caiec company on the island.
IPS’s entry into the Expocuba exhibition centre has been a breath of fresh air. The regime only allows accredited press to access Fihav, making it difficult to obtain more than official information about what goes on there. But news agency reporter Dariel Pradas has found a goldmine of Chinese companies in Hall 10 that export from their country to the island, a business niche they have no intention of passing up.
“The situation here is different from other countries. They don’t have the capacity to produce things, and everything has to be brought in from outside, almost always from China. Now MSMEs* are buying a lot of things. It’s an opportunity for all foreign firms,” said Wu Han.
“The situation here is different from in other countries. They don’t have the capacity to produce things, and everything has to be brought in from outside, almost always from China.”
His company has been on the island for decades, arriving in 1995 to sell generators. Now, he says, the business includes cars, lorries, agricultural machinery, raw materials, food and fertilisers, among other things. Wu Han says that the main customer was always the state, which was logical during the years when private enterprise was prohibited, but since its creation was approved, things have changed radically and there is now almost no trade with the state sector.
The article points out that the state hardly has any ability to pay, and his company demands payment in advance, “like other Chinese companies”. According to the businessman, things have changed on this, and, with a few exceptions, no goods are now unloaded unless they have been paid for. Ten years ago, however, the Chinese accepted payment terms of between one and two years.
Patience has run out for China Auto Caiec, to which the state owes some £140 million since 2015, meaning that concessions are no longer available. However, they do not plan to leave for two reasons: they hope to recover the debt one day and, in the meantime, they are negotiating with private companies. “The Cuban market is unique in the world,” said Wu Han.
The article, published on Friday by IPS, highlights the debt owed to two other companies from the Asian giant. Zhaoke, on the island since 2004, and Liaoning Mec Group, since 1998, are owed approximately $40 million and $58 million, respectively. Their situation is, however, worse, as they are private companies that do not receive any state aid for the promotion of bilateral economic cooperation, said Layda García, a sales representative for Zhaoke for more than a decade.
As he puts it, when the brand established itself on the island, everything ran smoothly, with revenues reaching as high as $23 million, but now they barely reach $1 million. “Working in Cuba for so long also creates a strong sense of belonging,” he said, justifying the company president’s decision to remain there.
At the opening of Fihav, President Miguel Díaz-Canel gave a speech in which he acknowledged the situation. He admitted that “There are business people here whom we owe money, where we have not been able to fulfill all our commitments, and yet they are still in Cuba.”
The president said that among them there is “a sense of commitment” and confidence in change. “Many of these businesspeople have been in Cuba for decades, they have invested in Cuba, they have made it part of their lives and also part of their business results in Cuba, and that is the most important thing,” he said.
“There are businesspeople here we owe money to, where we have not been able to fulfil all our commitments, and yet they are still in Cuba.”
Miguel Díaz-Canel visited China in early September as part of his Asian tour, which also took him to Vietnam and Laos. In Beijing, in addition to marching behind a powerful troika formed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and the host, Xi Jinping, he held meetings with senior leaders – including the president – and business people from the region. He promised them, as he had previously promised the Russians and Vietnamese, that Cuba would be more open for doing business.
During Fihav, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga – who since yesterday is also the new Deputy Prime Minister – announced a package of measures to encourage the inflow of foreign capital. Among the changes is the option of greater freedom in hiring – currently very limited, since it is authorised on an exceptional basis, case by case, and the selection process through state-authorised employment agencies remains the general rule – as well as facilities for operating in foreign currency, foreign bank accounts and access to underutilised structures in the country.
In addition, any investor will be able to wholesale their products and services to “any national economic actor with the capacity to pay, without any restrictions. There are no obstacles, there is nothing to prohibit it,” said Pérez Oliva. A possible reason is, beyond just the rhetoric of sister nations, to retain the Chinese.
*MSME – Literally, “Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises.” The expectation is that it is also privately managed, but in Cuba this may include owners/managers who are connected to the government.
Translated by GH
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