The origins of the relations began when the Qing dynasty established a consulate in Havana while Cuba was a still a colony of Spain in 1879.

China and Cuba experience good mutual relations, including through being members of the Belt and Road Initiative.

[2]: 137 In the late 1990s, China provided the Cuban government with equipment to block signals from Radio Martí.

[10] General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao visited Cuba in November 2004,[11] and followed by his successor, Xi Jinping, in July 2014.

[13] In 2023, China and Cuba signed a bilateral cybersecurity agreement designed to prevent political subversion.

[2]: 137  The move increased diplomatic tensions, with Fidel Castro describing Mao Zedong as a senile idiot.

[2]: 137 As relations improved, China provided Cuba with interest-free credit for it to import home appliances in the early 2000s.

[18] The Cuban government is replacing older appliances with newer, more energy-efficient models, including (as of early 2006) 30,000 Chinese refrigerators.

[20]: 118 As of 2004, China had agreed to planning to invest US$500 million in the completion and operation of Las Camariocas, an unfinished processing facility from the Soviet era.

Financing for the project is from the China Development Bank, with Sinosure, the Chinese Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, providing guarantees.

[22] The company also has a contract for joint production in one of Cuba's offshore areas of high potential yield, off the coast of Pinar del Río,[23] but had done no off-shore drilling as of mid-2008.