Rather, advocates of present policy argue that the United States must maintain its embargo and otherwise continue a hard line toward Cuba because Castro has not held free elections and has violated human rights. But this is an utterly specious argument. Advancing the cause of a more open system and greater respect for human rights is indeed a legitimate U.S. interest, as discussed below, but it would almost certainly be better served by engagement than by continued efforts to pressure and isolate Cuba. The argument that engagement works with them but would not with Cuba is utterly lacking in substance. True, we have other compelling interests in those countries.
China does indeed offer a huge, nearly irresistible, market.
Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have oil. If Cuba had a population of over a hundred million people, there doubtless would be no embargo. It would have been abandoned years ago. But it is an island with a population of only eleven million. And it exports no oil.