Florida Banking October 2023

STRAIGHT TALK FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

NOW DO YOU CARE ABOUT CUBA AND CHINA?

BY ALEJANDRO “ALEX” SANCHEZ, FBA PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

M any of our presidents took China lightly, thinking we could somehow change the country by allowing American manufacturing factories to set up shop there, only to have those products shipped back to our country as China-made products and exports. Many thought, what harm is there in doing that? Many of our universities tried

Cuba, on the other hand, is a country most Americans don’t know or remember only as a brief mention in high school history class. They may remember the 13 days of October when President Kennedy battled the old Soviet Union over the missile crisis when Soviet rockets were being placed in Cuba, a country only 90 miles from our American shores. The

to out-do each other by recruiting Chinese students, hoping perhaps those students would return to China with democratic ideals and principles and change their country’s political system. We now know that the Chinese economy is rivaling the American economy and may overtake us in the future. We also now know that China is massively investing in its military and building a global Naval force. We have realized that Chinese students educated in the West under free and democratic principles are not going to change the one-party Socialist/

Cuban government is a depressed, failed, and totalitarian Socialist/ Communist regime that is ruthless with its people. The regime keeps an iron fist over its citizens and there is no freedom whatsoever. How bad is the failed state of Cuba? This bad: Its citizens build makeshift rafts and, under the cover of night, jump into the dangerous Gulf of Mexico in hopes of reaching freedom in the United States. How bad must things be in Cuba for its citizens to escape while risking their lives in those shark infested waters of the Caribbean for days?

“MOST OF CHINA’S MONEY COMES FROM YOU AND ME, AS WE CONTINUE TO BUILD THE $500 BILLION ANNUAL TRADE IMBALANCE BETWEEN OUR COUNTRIES.”

Communist system in their country. While the Chinese government allows students to return with their Western education, to buy a home, a car, perhaps even travel overseas, it muzzles any political discontent or disobedience. And in a police state like China, the hurdles are too high for any Chinese citizen to overcome, and few will risk their economic well being.

Can you imagine yourself, your spouse, and your child floating in those waters for days on a makeshift raft? That is how desperate the Cubans are to leave that Socialist tyranny. Now Cuba and China have come together in a marriage between two communist regimes. China is building a major military base in Cuba with the

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