Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has backed China in its dispute with the United States over the collision of the US spy plane with a Chinese fighter jet.

And he said his country would not support a US-sponsored move to condemn China's human rights record.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission is expected to vote later this week on a resolution condemning human rights abuses in both China and Cuba.

President Chavez made his comments during the three day visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is on the last leg of his Latin American tour.

The Venezuelan president said he strongly supported China's right to defend its sovereignty, following a ceremony in which President Jiang laid a wreath at the tomb of South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar.

Letter of condolence

Mr Chavez, who proudly confessed to being an admirer of Mao Zedong, said he would also write a letter of condolence to the family of the Chinese pilot who died in the collision earlier this month.

Mr Chavez has already irritated the US on several occasions in the past, most notably when he became the first elected leader to visit Saddam Hussein last year.

When a recent US State Department report criticised Venezuela's human rights record, he went on national television to read out figures compiled by Amnesty International listing human rights abuses in the US.

Venezuela is the last stop on President Jiang's six-nation Latin American tour.

The two men will sign several energy agreements before President Jiang leaves on Tuesday, including one to build a multi-million dollar oil plant in Venezuela to provide fuel for electricity generation in China.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1280000/1280995.stm

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Answers

Response to POL/ENER Venezuela backs China in plane row

WTH? I knew Chavez hated the US and was a communist from way back, but this puts a new twist on China's diplomatic moves south of our borders. Panama and the Canal are already in China's back pocket, they have a major "cargo" port in the Bahamas, and now they're making big moves on the country next door to Columbia, where we suddenly are mounting a major military build-up to fight the "war on drugs" (read: secure Latin American oil supplies) against the leftist guerillas who control the cocaine and heroin trade? Can anyone say deja vu?

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Response to POL/ENER Venezuela backs China in plane row

China and Venezuela to forge closer ties

President Jiang Zemin of China and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela will on Tuesday sign an agreement boosting Chinese investment in Venezuela, an accord that marks Caracas's increasingly rosy ties with Beijing.

Mr Chávez said China's National Petroleum Corporation has agreed to build a plant to produce "orimulsion", a fuel made from heavy tar sands and currently used in power stations in China and Italy. Construction of the "orimulsion" plant would likely entail an investment of some $300m, industry observers said.

China will also help develop Venezuela's agricultural sector, including the possibility of providing Chinese labour, Mr Chávez said. In addition, Venezuela is considering a proposal from a Chinese company to locate in Venezuela a plant to manufacture aircraft for military training and light transport.

Under the government of Mr Chávez, Venezuela has strengthened commercial relations with China. Trade between the two countries jumped 35 per cent last year to $219m, although $185m of the total represents Chinese exports to Venezuela.

Venezuela is currently the top target country in Latin America for Chinese foreign investment, according to the Chinese embassy in Caracas.

While some Venezuelan business groups supported the attempt to build closer ties with China to gain access to its markets, observers warned that the warm welcome given by Mr Chávez to Mr Jiang, at a moment of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, could endanger Venezuela's relationship with the US.

In a gesture seemingly supportive of Beijing's position in its standoff with Washington over the mid-air collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter, Mr Chavez said on Monday that Venezuela would this week oppose a US-sponsored vote at the United Nations condemning China's record on respect for human rights.

Venezuela's bilateral trade with the US was last year worth 110 times more than its commerce with China, with high crude oil prices helping generate a trade surplus of $13.1bn in favour of Venezuela.

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc? pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT349SDZMLC&live=true&tagid=ZZZ60A9VA0C&su bheading=americas Lovely..So China hasn't signed up for CO2 reductions under Kyoto. But
they are going to burn Orimulsion to generate electricity

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Response to POL/ENER Venezuela backs China in plane row

The thick plottens, donit? Anyone brushing up on their Mandarin?

And, of course, solidarity with her communist Chinese brethren and sistren doesn't stop Venezuela from selling us a good portion of its oil. But it might, down the road. . .

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001