International Forum: Improving Relations Needs Sincerity ����January 5, US President Bill Clinton announced some new measures to relax the sanctions against Cuba, but they are not welcomed by the Cuban government, which shows great gap existing between the stand of Cuba and the United States. ����The abnormal state is due to the United States' long-term blockade and embargo against Cuba. According to the Cuban side, US sanctions have incurred a loss of US$ 60 billion to Cuba since 1962, which seriously harmed the interests of Cuba. Contrary to US wishes, Cuba is not overwhelmed by the sanctions, but instead, conditions for Cuba have been improved. Most of the Latin American nations have resumed or normalized their diplomatic ties with Cuba. Some Western nations have also improved their relations with Cuba. The US policy toward Cuba is unpopular in the world. ����At the same time, some Americans also object the US government's Cuba policy. In a letter to President Clinton last October, a group of US congressmen called on the government to re-examine its policy toward Cuba. The US enterprise circles hope the government will lift the sanction as early as possible so as to avoid continuous missing of business opportunities. ����It is easy to find that the US government has to relax some sanctions against Cuba under the strong domestic and international pressures, but the relaxed measures announced last March have not yet been carried out. Hence, we are doubting about those measures Clinton announced January 5. More importantly, the United States still rejected a comprehensive review of the US policy toward Cuba. This shows that the United States is lack of sincerity in comprehensively improving US-Cuban relationship. ����Facts have proved that imposing sanctions and blockades on other nations and use of force are unhelpful to solving the divergence between countries. They should all be abandoned. Only when the United States changes its hostile policy toward Cuba and completely lifts the blockade and sanctions against Cuba, can US-Cuban relationship improve substantially. ���� ���� Opinion 1999-01-12 Page6 Full Story in Chinese