October 10
Visiting Beijing, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez stated, "I have always been very Maoist," the Associated Press reports. Chavez a former army paratrooper and failed coup leader, who after being elected has increased the role of the military in Venezuelan society, repeatedly praised Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse Tung during meetings with Chinese officials.
October 11
Chinese President Jiang Zemin gave a full state welcome to Hugo Chavez and the Beijing government agreed to purchase a special Venezuelan fuel that is a controversial substitute for coal, the AP reports. The tar-based fuel called Orimulsion was blocked for sale to the United States because environmental groups claim it is a pollution threat to air and water. Another agreement signed protects Chinese investments in Venezuela, including the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation's $360 million investment in drilling and exploitation rights in two Venezuelan oil fields.
October 12
Speaking at an economic seminar in Beijing, Hugo Chavez invited China to share in Venezuela's "resurrection after decades of financial crisis," AP reports. Earlier, while paying homage at Mao Tse Tung's tomb, Chavez wrote in the mausoleum's guest book, "To the great strategist, to the great soldier, to the great statesman and to the great revolutionary." Meeting with Chinese officials, Chavez criticized the United States as attempting to be a global policeman.
Meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Chavez called for a multipolar world free of U.S. domination. He said China was a guarantee that the world would not fall into a "uniploar" system dominated by a single superpower. At China's Great Hall of the People, Zhu offered China's full support for "the social revolution" of Chavez. "Although certain conservative forces at home [Venezuela] and abroad are against your cause, the government and people of China are on your side," Zhu stated.
Thank you for posting it PhilDragoo.
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