Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, to visit Cuba

[Mika]

Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, to visit Cuba
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/noviembre/mier17/47hucuba.html

AT the invitation of President Fidel Castro Ruz, ... Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, is to make an official and friendly visit to Havana on Monday, November 22.

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President Hu’s visit to the Cuba is an expression of the high level of relations and bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Maybe a Wal Mart supplier manufacturing deal is in the works. NOT!

[el_gato]

1. this is more significant than some realize

I just read yesterday about China making an investment deal with Argentina and was talking to a friend about it. We were discussing the
loss of U.S. hegemony in the economic arena due to the growing strength of China. And I was using Cuba as an example of a nation that lost
its economic support when Russia fell by the wayside and how if china
starts throwing its weight around everything in the calculus would change. And now I see this article.

[htuttle]

2. China's been even busier than that

Consider that in the last few weeks, they've also signed a huge deal with Iran to handle their oil production (in exchange for...security guarantees maybe?), another oil deal with Venezuela (to sell their oil to China instead of the US), and another TWO deals with Brazil (both about trade, one of them about soybeans).

They've really been making bank while Bush has been running around smiling and waving...

[Minstrel Boy]

6. China recently made a huge investment in Canada

purchasing Noranda Mines.

[DireStrike]

3. yeah...

Took the words out of my mouth.

The US is being kicked out of the loop everywhere. EU, Iran, China are cutting deals all over the place. I imagine once some infrastructure for backup markets is in place, they're going to drop our debt like a hot potato. Worst case scenario, but that's what I'd be doing if I was a foreign power.

[bin.dare]

4. China is bartering

Argentina is a good example of the bartering deals China is setting up: Argentina produces the soy beans, China produces the trains and other infra-structure to move the beans from the remote areas. this is essentially independent of the dollar.
China is pegged to the US$ right now because it is advantageous to be so, it "sells" a lot of its stuff to the US. If the yuan floats, you can say bye-bye Wal-Mart, bye-bye US standard of living, you might even say bye-bye US$.

[Spazito]

5. This is very interesting!

There is another thread on LBN with the header:

EU urged to improve relationship with Cuba

Here's the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1002639

Putting these two threads, among others, together, it seems to me there are some VERY strong messages being sent both to the US regarding unilateralism as well as a strong message to isolate the US and build a counter alliance.

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

7. So what! Who cares? It means nothing!!!

as long as gays can't marry, that is...

[Scurrilous]

8. Hu Jintao and Castro...

...will get together, down a few mojitos, and toast Reagan's victory over Communism.

[Anakin Skywalker]

9. JIN TAO WHO?

I have always wanted to say that! :)

[ckramer]

10. Remember,

Cuba just dropped Dollar from its currency circulation.

[AP]

11. Time to learn Chinese and Spanish. If China becomes the banker for

Latin America's progressive, middle-class enhancing economic development, the US is fucked.

Our fascist, wealth-concentrating, middle-class impoverishing economy is going to be no match for the kind of liberal economy that the US rode to world domination from 1890 to about 1972.

We gave them all our factories and now they're going to use those factories to create middle class wealth (except in Haiti, of course, for now). We'll be the banana republic in another 15 years.

[ckramer]

13. Chinese and Spanish

are already the most spoken language in the world.

check this out

[AP]

14. Probably not that many trilinguals in America. But we'll need to be in

15 years if we want to participate in the global economy.

[MADem]

12. Our WWIII enemy, in our backyard?

Shit, nothing seems to change. Way back when, it was Russia with the nukes. Now it's China, with air conditioners, refrigerators, and all sorts of WALMART type crap.

China owns a LOAD of our debt. It wouldn't surprise me if they start pumping money into Cuba--or maybe transferring some of our debt to Cuban control--that'll fuck us up but good. Another opportunity lost.

We really need to get over the Castro thing. I think he was involved in the Kennedy business, but I don't think he was the only one. He's going to die soon enough, the thing to do is start normalization and win them over...not continue to punish them for something that happened decades ago. Hell, we normalized with Vietnam, why can't we normalize with Cuba?

Funny how the politics of a leader only matters if they don't have any oil....

[saskatoon]

15. Involved in the Kennedy business

I thought EVERBODY was aware the it was Miami Cubans,Rogue CIA and the mob(the mob was mad because Castro did away with their very lucrative activities in Cuba)

[MADem]

16. Who really knows?

But the only thing I can figure is that incoming presidents must get "the brief" at the beginning of their term, and what they learn is sufficient to make them want to keep up this absurd treatment of a close neighbor. When you look at the sins (from a US policy perspective) of Castro, and compare them to say, Khaddafi, it just seems odd that we can't "get over" him.

[Carl Brennan]

17. Lesson learned I hope

is that you don't need to use force to get resources.

Cuba and China are acting like savvy capitalists. :shrug:

[David Zephyr]

18. Hilarious! This Totally Exposes Bush's Double Standard For Cuba

What's the difference between Cuba and China when they both have long standing communist central governments and without western style democratic elections?

China is a most favored nation in trading status with the U.S.

Cuba is a sanctioned nation with trade embargoes against it.