Castro's Reflection on Meeting Hu Jintao

MEETING HU JINTAO
Reflections by comrade Fidel
Nov 20, 2008

I didn't want to speak much, but he forced me to elaborate. I asked a
few questions but I mostly listened to him.

He related the exploits of the Chinese people in the past 10 months.
The enormous nation with a 1.3 billion population has been hit by
heavy and out-of-season snow, and an earthquake which devastated
areas three times that of Cuba; in addition to the most serious
international economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

I could see in my mind the great efforts of the Chinese people, its
workers, its peasants and its manual and intellectual workers; the
traditional hard-working spirit and the millennium-old culture of
that country that preceded by thousands of years the colonial period
imposed by the West, the same West where the current G-7 powers sit
today with their force and wealth, playing a hegemonic role in the
world economy.

What a great challenge for this leader in these times of
globalization who in a gesture of goodwill came to visit our
blockaded, harassed and threatened homeland! Are we not one a rogue
state among 60 or more that can be the target of a pre-emptive
attack? That much was said by the insane leader of the empire six
years ago, the same man who just five days ago met in Washington with
the G20!

China is the only member of that group whose State can regulate a
high growth rate, at the pace it chooses, no less than 8% in 2009.
The idea raised during the last Party Congress was to quadruple the
per capita Gross Domestic Product between 2000 and 2020, measured in
2007 present values; that was the year the Congress was held.
He spoke to me about that in detail. Thus, in conditions of peace,
China will reach by the end of that period the figure of no less than
4 thousand dollars per capita income. I think that it should not be
forgotten that China is an emerging nation whose per capita income at
the time of the revolutionary victory --with a smaller population?
hardly reached $400 per capita, and the country was completely
isolated by imperialism. Just compare this with the $20 thousand per
capita, or more, that developed capitalist countries such as Japan,
the Western European nations, the United States and Canada currently
enjoy. The per capita income in some of these exceeds the $40
thousand annually, even if their distribution in society is far from
fair.

It is only by using $586 billion from its foreign reserves amounting
to almost $2 trillions, accumulated through much hard work and
sacrifices that this country is facing the present crisis and
advancing. Is there any other country as sound as this?

The President of China, Secretary General of the Party and Chairman
of the Party and Government Central Military Commissions, Hu Jintao,
is a leader who's aware of his authority and exercises it to the
full.

The delegation he headed signed with Cuba twelve draft agreements
towards a modest economic development in an area of the planet where
the small territory in its entirety can be battered by increasingly
intensive hurricanes, an evidence of true climate changes. The area
affected by the earthquake in China is hardly 4% of the total area of
that great multinational State.

Under certain circumstances, the size of an independent country, its
geographical location and the size of its population can play a major
role.

Would a country like the United States, which robs already trained
minds everywhere, be in a position to apply an Adjustment Act to the
Chinese citizens similar to the one it applies to Cuba? Obviously
not. Could it apply it to the entire Latin America? Of course, it
couldn't there either.

Meanwhile, our marvelous, contaminated and only spaceship continues
to circle around its imaginary axis, as one popular Venezuelan
program likes to repeat.

It's not an everyday occurrence for a small state to have the
privilege of receiving a leader of Hu Jintao's stature and prestige.
He shall now continue his trip to Lima. There will be another great
meeting there. Again, President Bush will attend, this time seven
days closer to the end of his mandate.

It is said that in Washington, with only 20 leaders of the attending
nations, the local security measures and those required by the host
to thwart any attempt at physical removal, changed the habits and
every day life in that city. How would it be in the great city of
Lima? The city will surely be taken over by the security forces.
It will be difficult to move around it because the well-trained members
of the US supranational bodies will be there, and their interests and
plans will only be known many years after the presidential terms of
the eventual leaders of the empire are over.

I summed up for him some of our country's assessments on the habits
of our neighbors to the north, which tries to impose on us its ideas,
its mindset and its interests with its fleet full of nuclear weapons
and fighter planes; also our views on Venezuela's solidarity with
Cuba from the most critical days of the Special Period and the hard
blows dealt by the natural disasters. Likewise, that President
Chavez, a great admirer of China has been the steadiest advocate of
socialism as the only system capable of bringing justice to the
peoples of Latin America.

In Beijing, they treasure good memories of the Bolivarian leader.

President Hu Jintao reaffirmed his wishes to continue developing
relations with Cuba, a country for which he feels great respect.

The conversation went on for 1 hour and 38 minutes. He was warm,
friendly and modest, and his affection was obvious. I found him
young, healthy and strong. We wish our distinguished and fraternal
friend the best in his endeavors. Thanks for his encouraging visit
and the honor of showing an interest in a personal meeting with me!

Fidel Castro Ruz

November 19, 2008

1:12 p.m.