Tag: Latin America

  • Is Venezuela selling oil to China instead of to the U.S.?

    The United States is importing less oil from Venezuela, and China is buying more. Is Venezuela putting its resources where Hugo Chávez’s mouth is and using the country’s major export as a geopolitical lever? Or are U.S. imports just catching up with a 10-year decline in Venezuelan production? The U.S. Energy Information Administration released April…

  • Cuba–China Ties in Focus as Standing Committee Member Visits Fidel

    Fidel Castro met with He Guoqiang, a member of China’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, for more than two hours yesterday, discussing numerous and diverse topics such as Tibet, Taiwan, food prices, the Olympics, and Fidel’s health (He conveyed President Hu Jintao’s wish for Castro’s speedy recovery). Earlier in the week He met with Cuban President…

  • Venezuelan–Chinese Investment and an Industrial Showcase

    Lest a week go by without new evidence of strengthening ties between China and Venezuela, a massive trade show featuring Chinese companies and products opens tomorrow in Caracas. The fair includes more than seventy Chinese firms from numerous industries, ranging from porcelain to automobiles. The fair, organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, is an…

  • Bush and Chávez on Equal Ground in China

    Chinochano notes [es] that most visits by foreign heads of state to China result in the same press release, names changed. In Spanish from the blog, here are the two hypothetical* examples. George W. Bush Hugo Chávez Pekín, 2 nov 2007 — El presidente de China, Hu Jintao, sostuvo conversaciones hoy aquí con su homólogo…

  • Tacos in China

    A Mexican mall opens in China—good news for China residents who like good tequila. But the mall is a rare example of Mexico selling to China. Usually China does the exporting, to Mexico and to Mexico’s most important market, the United States. Mexican companies are struggling to compete. The Mexican consulting firm Latinasia will inaugurate…