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Morales praises Mao, asks China to invest in Bolivia(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Beijing, Jan 8 (EFE).- Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales kicked off his tour in China by declaring himself to be a great admirer of Mao Zedong and his "proletarian revolution," and he urged Chinese businesses to invest in key sectors of the Bolivian economy, including natural gas and oil production, as well as mining in general. In his spontaneous and informal style, Morales met with Chinese state advisor Tang Jiaxuan and the head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang Jiarui, to whom he acknowledged that he had read Mao's biography "since I was a young man" and had "great respect" for China's communist revolution. Visibly tired already from the rigors of his four-continent international tour that in all likelihood, although it has not yet been confirmed, will take him on to India and Iran, Morales emphasized his admiration for orthodox Chinese communism, despite the fact that the Asian giant - over the past couple of decades - has replaced its former economic ideology with "market socialism." Because of his exhaustion, Morales cancelled two meetings with journalists that had been scheduled for Sunday sending his economic advisor, Carlos Villegas, in his place to explain the president-elect's basic objectives in making the trip to China. Although when he went to Europe in the early portion of the tour, Morales focused on warning firms doing business in Bolivia - including Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF and France's TotalFina Elf - that the Bolivian state will exercise its property rights over its natural resources, he urged Chinese businesses to make investments in the country's main economic sectors. "Chinese firms have been invited - if they follow Bolivian regulations - to enter into sectors like energy, mining or agriculture," Villegas said. On Monday, Morales will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Trade Minister Bo Xilai, with whom he will discuss the investment invitation in further detail, and he is also scheduled to get together with Chinese businessmen from the energy sector. Analysts say that getting investment commitments from the Chinese could serve to establish a strategic alliance between Beijing and the incoming Bolivian government, which sees countries like China and India as possible counterweights to the United States in the Latin American economy. Beijing, for its part, wants to invest in Bolivia - which has the second largest reserves of natural gas in South America, after Venezuela - to assure itself a supply of energy to fuel its booming economy as well as to broaden its buoyant foreign trade with Latin America. In 2004, China was the sixth largest exporter of products to Bolivia and the largest such supplier outside the Western Hemisphere with sales valued at $107.6 million, almost 10 times the figure from just two years prior, according to data from the Bolivian Foreign Trade Institute. However, Villegas rejected the suggestion that Morales was trying to weave together an alliance against U.S. "imperialism," an idea that flourished anew upon the announcement of the Bolivian leader-to-be's possible visit to Iran, a member of the so-called "axis of evil" enunciated by U.S. President George W. Bush and for years a painful thorn in Washington's side. "The United States is no longer the only axis of economic and military hegemony. Now, a triad dominates the world - the United States, the European Union and Asia - and the only thing we're doing is looking at reality and making contact with the different countries," Villegas told reporters at a press conference. In his meetings with Chinese officials so far, Morales has displayed a relaxed attitude and apologized - as he did in Spain - for his lack of familiarity with diplomatic protocol, to which state advisor Tang, a former foreign minister of China, responded that the indigenous coca growers' union leader "doesn't need formalities" in his meetings in China. Tang also joked with Morales about the latter's "summer" outfit - his signature short-sleeved shirt - and advised him to bundle up if he intended to go out on the street, given that recent Beijing temperatures have dropped down to below freezing. Morales hopes to merge his political agenda on Monday with sightseeing trips to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, which will be closed for a short period of time to other tourists to allow him to contemplate both architectural wonders in all their splendor, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials told EFE. Asked by reporters whether Morales will visit Iran, Villegas replied that Bolivia "wants to have relations with all countries." "The decisions that we're taking are not (designed) to attack any country, but to assemble the necessary conditions for the (new Bolivian) government to be successful," he added. If his trip to India and Iran comes off, Morales will postpone his scheduled visit to Argentina and will end his world tour in Brazil and return to La Paz a week before his inauguration on Jan. 22, officials with the presidential entourage told EFE. Morales began his foreign tour in Cuba, moving on to Venezuela, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and now China. EFE abc/bp |