Trump Administration Executive Order About China Military Will Impact Biden Administration Decisions About Cuba Military

The Trump Administration decision on 12 November 2020 to prohibit individuals subject to United States jurisdiction from investing in military-controlled companies in the People’s Republic of China will impact the ability of the Biden Administration to alter the Trump Administration’s 2017 policy changes which prohibit individuals subject to United States jurisdiction from engagement with companies controlled by the military in the Republic of Cuba.

With the addition of the People’s Republic of China, the Trump Administration has created a sustainable and transferable and non-Republic of Cuba-centric narrative which will be challenging for the Biden Administration to change without impactful bipartisan criticism from members of the United States Congress.

With the political party divisions narrow in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, there will be little incentive for the Biden Administration to be perceived as “supporting military control of the China and Cuba economies.”

The Trump Administration’s message to the Biden Administration is separating the military from control of country economies is not being punitive, it’s about who would, and who should a United States company want to engage- with a general or with a civilian.

While United States companies would prefer to self-determine whether to engage with military-controlled companies in the Republic of Cuba, executives from United States companies will not be engaging publicly to oppose Trump Administration policy as it transforms into Biden Administration policy.

The White House
Washington DC
12 November 2020

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13959

ADDRESSING THE THREAT FROM SECURITIES INVESTMENTS THAT FINANCE COMMUNIST CHINESE MILITARY COMPANIES

Excerpts

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the People's Republic of China (PRC) is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, which continues to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas, including by developing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, advanced conventional weapons, and malicious cyber-enabled actions against the United States and its people.

I therefore further find that the PRC's military-industrial complex, by directly supporting the efforts of the PRC's military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. To protect the United States homeland and the American people, I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to this threat.

The White House
Washington DC
16 June 2017

Fact Sheet On Cuba Policy
Summary of Key Policy Changes:

Excerpts

The new policy channels economic activities away from the Cuban military monopoly, Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA), including most travel-related transactions, while allowing American individuals and entities to develop economic ties to the private, small business sector in Cuba. The new policy makes clear that the primary obstacle to the Cuban people’s prosperity and economic freedom is the Cuban military’s practice of controlling virtually every profitable sector of the economy. President Trump’s policy changes will encourage American commerce with free Cuban businesses and pressure the Cuban government to allow the Cuban people to expand the private sector.