CUBA AND CHINA

Editor:

Cuba again is sanctioned. Thirty years after Castro took American corporate

holdings and turned the island into a socialist state which is known for its

free education, free health care and human rights violations. Then on Feb. 24

the Cubans shot down two planes which were led to Cuban air space by Josi

Basulto, a CIA agent and Bay of Pigs veteran.

Front-page condemnation resulted while no press was given to Basulto's

numerous flights over Cuba and Havana in 1994, 1995 and 1996. They flew on

Jan. 9 and 13 and dropped ''subversive'' leaflets over Havana. Each of these

incidents was officially reported to the U.S. diplomatic channels or the U.S.

Air Force.

In 1973 Israel shot down a Libyan Arab Airlines passenger flight over the

Sinai Desert. A U.S. District Court stated, ''The Israeli government was well

within its international rights to challenge with arms the presence of

unauthorized alien aircraft...''

Now the ''Communist dictatorship'' of China rattles its sabers closer to

Taiwan and threatens to ''bury'' American naval forces. Never a whimper of

outrage is heard from the American right. But then, the U.S. is the biggest

investor in China, where profits are big -- regardless of human rights

violations, low wages and prison labor.

International diplomacy is based on absolute profitability. Beijing has

McDonald's, Havana doesn't.

GREGORY KESTEL

Windsor