21.   U.S. State Department officials last week expressed concerns about reports that China was shipping military equipment to Cuba, although the State Department later pulled back from the statement.

22.   Under prodding from the US government, the equipment was finally shipped to a McDonnell Douglas joint-venture installation in Shanghai, the daily said.

23.   The exercises here come after Washington took other precautions such as sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to the east Meditteranean and shipping military equipment to the Gulf.