Customers say that the State took over the business after the independent media reported on the place
14ymedio, Havana, August 24, 2024 — The saga of the China Import store continues this Saturday with dozens of Havanans who, given its closure “until further notice,” continue to come to the surroundings to ask what will become of the so-called “Chinese Costco” of Manglar and Oquendo. According to the information provided by a staff member of the building where it leased space, the business is being audited. At the fence in front of the establishment, both tension and uncertainty grow.
On Friday, the store, located in the municipality of Cerro, was closed, a day after 14ymedio dedicated a report to the promising establishment. Those who crowded together at China Import on Saturday were repeating that, after the publication, the State had taken over the business and forced its closure.
The version of the closure that circulates among those present is that the owner of China Import, from an Asian country, has his Cuban wife appear as the official owner of the store. “El Chino,” as a staff member calls him, “asked them to remove the phone number (from the entrance sign) because he wasn’t able to eat or sleep. What they’re doing now is an audit, and el Chino ordered everything to stop.”
“If you have a small business and they arrive (the inspectors) and tell you ‘give me the license,’ you show it and that’s that. But when it is something of this dimension, usually when the ’compañeros’ come they check it. Maybe Monday it’s not open, but maybe they will open on Tuesday or Wednesday. The owner said ’closed until we’re done’ because he can’t be in one place and then another. They have to understand.”
“The owner is a Cuban woman,” the man insisted, “although everyone is saying that it’s el Chino. He is also a Cuban citizen, although he was born in China.” The building, he said, ho
