I certainly understand the irony or inconsistency of our hardline stance against Cuba vs. our "constructive engagement" with China. Think back to the time when Nixon went to China and think if things would have been better for us, had he gone to Cuba instead and ignored China. I'm not saying it was a zero-sum game. He could have done both. But Cuba, at worst, was/is a nuisance, while China was/is a huge strategic and economic opportunity. We had the luxury of being able to isolate Cuba and punish Castro, witholding legitimacy from his regime. Not so with China. And I'd say Nixon's opening with China is still bearing a lot of fruit to this day.
The fact that our intel agencies are totally inept at countering China's vast, vast incursion into our university labs, high tech jobs and even some gov't. contractors is our own fault, not China's. You guys know who John Pike is? Check out
www.globalsecurity.org. John (he runs that site) and I were discussing this about a year or so ago. I mentioned how China does not consider Americans of Chinese descent to be "Chinese-Americans", but rather "overseas Chinese". John said, "No. They consider them to be assets." Don't look at Chinese folks here with suspicion. But don't assume any of them came here because they hate China. I've never met a Chicom who wasn't at least as patriotic about his homeland as any American is about his own.