Beijing condemned the United States on Friday over a new wave of sanctions against Cuba, saying Washington was trying to sabotage China's relations with the island — a package that, for the first time, penalises Chinese companies accused of supplying equipment to Cuba's military.

Source: AFP via Islamabad Post

"China firmly opposes US interference in and sabotage of China-Cuba cooperation," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing on Friday, calling the sanctions illegal and an example of "long-arm jurisdiction". He warned that Beijing would take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its businesses, AFP reported.

Source: AFP via Islamabad Post

The sanctions Guo was answering were announced by the US State Department on Thursday 5 November. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's action designated eight entities and two individuals and identified five vessels as blocked property, under Executive Order 14404, which President Donald Trump signed on 1 May 2026 to authorise sanctions over repression in Cuba and threats to US national security, according to the State Department statement carried by several outlets.

Source: US State Department statement via CubaHeadlines

The two Chinese firms, named for the first time

The Chinese companies sanctioned on Thursday are the state-owned China National Electronic Import-Export Company (CEIEC) — also rendered in US records as China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation, an exporter of defence electronics and security systems — and the private firm Beijing H&C Technologies. Washington accuses both of supplying military components and equipment to Cuba's Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), in Beijing H&C's case through the Cuban company Duna S.A.; those are US government allegations, which Beijing rejects.

Source: US State Department via CubaHeadlines

The rest of the list reached Cuba's oil-shipping and state-business networks. Guillermo Faustino Rodriguez Lopez Calleja was designated over what the State Department described as an offshore shipping network moving Cuban crude oil to and from the island, alongside the maritime firms Caroil Transport Marine, Tentacool Commercial, Internacional Maritima and Petroleos Maritimos del Caribe (Petromarca). The five blocked vessels are the Emilia, Gloria C, Maria Cristina, Esperanza and Lourdes. Two Cuban state entities, Cubaelectronica and Tecnosime, were also designated, and the list extended to Any Rodriguez Lastres, the daughter of the head of GAESA, Cuba's largest military-controlled business conglomerate, AFP and the State Department reports said.

Source: JBizNews / AFP

Treasury widens the net to four whole sectors

Separately, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a determination, effective 5 November, applying the executive order to the electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology sectors of Cuba's economy — meaning foreign persons operating in those sectors can now be designated. The State Department said the measures target the regime and its facilitators, not the Cuban people, and that humanitarian trade in food, medicine and medical devices remains authorised.

Source: OFAC Cuba sanctions programme page

Background: a year of tightening pressure on Havana

Since January, Washington has launched new sanctions and an oil blockade against Cuba that AFP said have crippled its economy and led to widespread blackouts and shortages of necessities. Trump has hinted at launching a military intervention to overthrow the island's ruling Communist Party, and last month Rubio urged Cubans to work with US intelligence services, AFP reported. Cuba and its supporters point to the UN General Assembly, which last month condemned the decades-old US embargo for a 34th straight year.

Source: AFP via Islamabad Post

The UN embargo vote in October drew a shouting match between the US and Cuban envoys on the General Assembly floor. Read: UN condemns US Cuba embargo for 34th year, 130-17

What happens next

Beijing did not say on Friday what its promised "necessary measures" would be — counter-sanctions, support for the two firms, or a diplomatic escalation are all still unstated. What is clear is that Cuba has become a new, named front in US-China rivalry close to American shores: Washington is now sanctioning Chinese state-linked suppliers over Cuba, and Beijing is publicly promising to protect them. Watch for China's commerce ministry, which usually announces any counter-measures, and for whether more Chinese firms appear in the next Cuba designations under the four new sectors.