[Socialism] How did Cuban Government react to the market oriented reforms in China under Deng Xiaoping and USSR under Gorbachev? How much support and opposition was there towards these policies in the Government and amongst ordinary people?

Cuban history during the 1990s is euphemistically referred to as the "Special Period", and was a time of immense deprivation and turmoil. Cuba was massively dependent on trade with the USSR, especially in oil. After the USSR collapsed, Cuba lost 80% of its exports and imports, and oil imports dropped to 10% of what they had previously been. As well as losing the oil itself, Cuba also lost any profits they made from previously selling on surplus oil.

This was catastrophic for Cuban industry and agriculture. Public transport stopped running properly, and farmers struggled without fertilisers made from oil. Near famine conditions set in, with people eating zoo animals and domestic cats, and the average Cuban lost 9 kilograms of body mass. Food rations decreased, and the government imposed a 10 year prison sentence on anyone illegally killing a cow. People improvised solutions to transport issues, such as using 18-wheeler tractor trailers known as "camels" instead of buses. With Cuba no longer exporting sugar to the USSR, many sugar farms were converted to farm other food.

Some people in Cuba were understandably furious about this. Many Cubans attempted to flee in boats to the USA, with some drowning in the attempt. The government attempted to secure boats to stop people stealing them to flee, further increasing unrest. On 5 August 1994, in a major protest called the Maleconazo, Cubans rioted in Havana, shouting "Freedom!" and damaging property. The police eventually dispersed the protests, but such a disturbance would have been unthinkable a few years earlier, and was a sign that something was very much amiss.

The government, which up until that point had stuck to their previous Marxist system, began to allow economic liberalisation to prevent complete disaster. In 1994, they introduced the convertible peso, pegged to the US dollar, as a form of hard currency parallel to the regular Cuban peso, and allowed farmers to sell surplus produce on the free market. There were also various other liberalisations, like allowing small businesses, subject to regulation, and the government cut subsidies for unprofitable state industries. The government made serious efforts to gain hard currency by expanding the tourism sector, resulting in a great increase in foreign visitors and an influx of hard currency into the country. This led to educated professionals like doctors working as hotel staff and taxi drivers to get convertible pesos from tourists. After these reforms, the impact of the Special Period reduced, and Cuba began to recover, with GDP per capita surpassing 1989 levels in the mid 2000s.

The attitude of the government in Cuba to reforms in other socialist dictatorships seemed to be stubborn, since reforms only happened after several years of Special Period deprivation. However, they were willing to take measures deviating from their ideology to prevent catastrophe, unlike North Korea during the contemporary Arduous March.

Sources:

Carmen Diana Deere (July–August 1991). "Cuba's struggle for self-sufficiency - aftermath of the collapse of Cuba's special economic relations with Eastern Europe". Monthly Review.

Donovan, Sandy; Rao, Sujay; Sandmann, Alexa L. (2008). Teens in Cuba. Capstone. p. 26. ISBN 9780756538514.