Paxety Pages

On Christmas Day, fidel announced the discovery of new oil fields off the coast. Now Cuba has signed a production agreement with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (SINOPEC) to develop the fields across Cuba.

 The agreement was reached in an early Sunday meeting attended by Li Lianfu, China's ambassador to Cuba; Cuba's Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia; and Minister of Government Ricardo Cabrisas, according to an official note in Granma, the Communist Party daily newspaper.

"The contract confirms ascending political and commercial relations between the two countries," the front-page note said.

Since the announcement of the discovery of oil, we've seen fidel getting closer to chavez in Venezuela, to the mullahs in Iran, to the North Koreans and now the ChiComs. China already controls the Panama Canal and has interests in Mexico.  Now we're seeing it move even closer to the US.  This, too, bears watching closely.