[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 12, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CHINA SELLING ARMS TO CUBA

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, many of us were shocked when we opened the 
newspaper this morning to read that China is selling arms to Cuba. The 
Cold War has been over for more than a decade. Very few Communist 
nations still survive, countries like Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. 
Each of these countries continues to oppress its people. For many in 
these countries there is not enough food to eat, and the freedoms the 
rest of the world enjoys do not exist.
  Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has lost billions of dollars 
in annual subsidies. Its people are hungry, poor and oppressed. Yet 
somehow it can afford to buy dangerous weapons from the last big 
Communist power, China.
  What does Cuba need these arms for? Is Fidel Castro planning to 
return to his old ways of exporting Communist revolution and terrorism? 
Or does he need these weapons to keep on suppressing the freedoms his 
people are yearning for?
  China should stop selling weapons to Cuba. Cuba should stop buying 
them from China. Communist leaders should worry about feeding their 
people before buying weapons to make war. What is next? A Chinese Bay 
of Pigs missile crisis in Cuba?

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