Cuba Announces Integration into Chinese Payment System
and to increase in use of Yuan
HAVANA TIMES – Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, informed government media on September 7, 2025, that the island’s banks will integrate into the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS). The system is designed by China as an alternative to SWIFT for conducting international payments in Chinese yuan, and that the use of this currency will increase in transactions between the two nations.
According to the report, this measure would resolve the “thorny issue of financial transactions” and put the island in “better conditions to process payments without the interference of US blockade actions.”
“It was also announced that our authorities have decided to increase the use of the Chinese yuan in trade and payment transactions in general between China and Cuba,” Perez-Oliva said.
The minister added that “the use of CIPS and the yuan are two factors that provide security and different expectations for companies in both countries and for investments.”
Perez-Oliva assured that after the announcements and the promise to reorganize debts, several Chinese entrepreneurs will continue “working with Cuba despite the difficult circumstances” of the economy in the financial sector.
“They proposed new projects, and entrepreneurs who did not know Cuba (…) showed interest in certain areas of cooperation (…). What stands out is the interest and determination of Chinese business leaders to continue betting on Cuba,” the minister concluded.
This is not the first time the Cuban government has boasted of strong cooperation with the Asian giant, only for the Chinese government to later backtrack. Privately, in recent years, the Chinese have expressed frustration over the lack of transparency in negotiations, delays in payments, and the absence of guarantees for their investments in Cuba.
In October 2024, for example, the Chinese government suspended a contract for the annual purchase of 400,000 tons of sugar. According to the Financial Times, the rupture was motivated by the collapse of the island’s sugar production, which had reached its lowest level in more than a century and barely covered domestic consumption. That situation forced the cancellation of a longstanding agreement.
The report also noted that bilateral trade contracted by one third over the past five years: Chinese exports to Cuba fell from 1.7 billion dollars in 2017 to 1.1 billion in 2022. The decline hit strategic sectors such as biotechnology, premium tobacco, seafood, and nickel.
Now, the minister specified that there are “other identified areas of cooperation” such as “oil exploration and exploitation, mining, and projects related to the recovery of Cuba’s sugar agroindustry.”
Repeated Promises: Alliances That Don’t Materialize
As for integration into CIPS and the increase in yuan use, this is also not the first time Cuba has announced something similar. However, over time, nothing has improved in economic exchange, much less in the lives of the people.
In April 2025, Novikombank, a subsidiary of the Russian state corporation Rostec, signed an agreement with the Central Bank of Cuba to expand the list of Cuban financial institutions that could make payments in rubles through their accounts.
In November 2023, Cuba’s state media announced “a technological rollout” for the use of Russian MIR cards as a means of payment. “The Russian payment system will favor transactions by Russian tourists or entrepreneurs on the island (…); it could become an alternative to bypass the implications of blockades and sanctions, and will strengthen trade ties,” they said.
Professor Luis Rene Fernandez, affiliated with the Center for Research on the International Economy at the University of Havana, notes this alliance would contribute to “increasing Russian tourism in Cuba, with potential revenues from services in hospitality, transportation, and gastronomy.”
“These inflows in rubles will make it possible to pay for everything from hydrocarbons and wheat to debts, without using another currency (…); without a doubt, it is a very useful payment initiative because it escapes sanctions and blockades,” he claimed.
Two years after those statements, the collapse of Russian tourism to the island is evident. Russian travelers experienced a sharp decline through July 2025: 71,797 visitors, just 58.2% of the 123,351 recorded a year earlier, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
Thus, Havana’s bid to join the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and expand the use of the yuan once again sounds more like a political maneuver than a real solution to the economic crisis that defines daily life on the island.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
If it helps the Cuban people, great. The situation can’t be any worse than it is now, so China, Russia whoever, work any magic you can to uplift the country. As to the USA, f&ck you and your embargo’s….
Communist Vietnam and Capitalist America fought each other for years, then they reached a peaceful agreement, the same can be done between Cuba and the US
Ajua…… new country emerge from the rubble.. Ladies and gentlemen from now on…. Chicu island …..
Where you can find alo con palito
Pela y higuito y mucha molonga
China in Cuba eh? I would hazzard a guess that it will be
Better than Usa sanctions.. EH? Good luck to the regular Cuban citizens. As always you’ll need it!!!!!
Cuba is run by the most inept, unintelligent, corrupt revolution stalwarts that have no business running a country.
So where is Cuba going to get the Chinese yuan? By selling China product that they don’t have in exchange for currency that is useless other than in China? And if they think that Chinese vacationers, with their pristine technology and exquisite foods, will flock to crumbling, hungry, and powerless Cuba then the regime are completely delusional.
This is even worse than the Russian ruble experiment.
So the island soon enough will be called CHIUBA.
What a shame.
Let these people finally be free and democratic. The world loves them and is waiting to embrace them with open arms. No more changes for them. They deserve to flourish and be secure.
Open your eyes wider. Cannot you not see how much suffering the Cuban people are going through. Anything to a have a better future and to ameliorate the current situation. Keep your negative comment to yourself and stop for a minute to analyze the Cuban people are past the breaking point. Wake up!!
China has a Capitalist economy (free market) and Cuba a Communist economy (centralized). Water and oil don’t mix; destined for a disaster…
You make me laugh, as long as the Same people who destroyed Cuba are in charge that country will never recover
I just long for the Cuban people to be better off in their lives and have much better prosperity. They deserve better.
I wish the Cuban people and government success with uplifting their economy and people by partnering with Russia and China. The US embargo is nothing more than systemic racism. Good luck Cuba!
China is everywhere.
Wants to spread their evil doctrine.
Leadership drive Rolls Royces,
Workers walk.
No REAL Communism.
I’ve spent some time in Cuba.
Desperate situation.
I believe that the Cuban people have had enough of the communist regime and seemed to enjoy just the possibility of a democracy… remember the Obama visit…? No more dictatorship and their friends and family… free Cuba… let people speak their minds at the ballot box ☑️…no more colonists views…!
The Silk Highway is now going to control Cuba. Wake up world.
The only way to solve the existential problem as I see it, is to shift the culture to a Macro economy that allows the trickle down effect of benefiting the cuban people. Micromanging the daily lives of the Cuban people will only lead to less prosperity. By encouraging the growth from within and allowing the cuban people to sell their goods abroad is the only way to increase the value of the countries currency. And would lessen the need to use foreign currency to stabilize the situation. The chance of this happening is “0”. Because of Cubas totalitarian control, over its people. The middle class builds all other classes and grows the economy without it, nothing changes.
I am completely in favor of Cuba entering into alliances with other countries no matter which country it is as long as it helps its people. If this move to join CIPS makes the ordinary Cuban have a more stable economy, then so be it!
Unfortunately, I do not have much faith in the Cuban government.
This a way to have China get control of Cuba maybe good likely bad
DISASTER !!!!