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China's PLA missile commander leads delegation visiting Cuba
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Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
A top Chinese military leader in charge of strategic missile forces visited Cuba recently, raising concerns that Havana may be seeking Chinese-made missile systems.
An eight-member PLA delegation, headed by Lt. Gen. Peng Xiaofeng, political commissar of the Second Artillery Force, left Beijing on March 2.
Other delegation members include Lt. Gen. Hu Yongzhu, director of the Political Department of the Chengdu Military Area Command; Lt. Gen. Yu Jixun, chief of staff of the Second Artillery Force; and Maj. Gen. Zhang Bangdong, director general of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense.
The Second Artillery is China’s dedicated missile force that builds and deploys both strategic nuclear and tactical conventional missiles.
Beijing recently offered to replace a batch of Chinese-made HN-5 shoulder fired missiles that the CIA secretly removed from Bolivia last year. It is not known if the delegation will visit Bolivia or Venezuela.
Cuba triggered the 1962 Cuban missile crisis by deploying Soviet medium-range missiles. Cuba’s military currently has a large number of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles that likely are nearing the end of their operational life.
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