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REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL
The meeting with Hu Jintao
Fidel Castro Ruz November
19, 2008 1:12 p.m.
I did not want to talk a lot, but he obliged me to expand on things;
I asked some questions and, basically, listened to him.
His words recounted the feats of the Chinese people in the last 10
months. Heavy and unseasonal snowfall, an earthquake that devastated
surface areas equivalent to three times the size of Cuba, and the gravest
economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s have hit that
immense nation of 1.3 billion inhabitants.
I saw before my eyes the immense effort of the Chinese people, of its
workers, peasants, manual and professional workers; the traditional
spirit of sacrifice and the millenary culture of that country thousands
of years before the colonial stage imposed by the West, when the current
powers of the G-7 group now hegemonizing the world economy emerged with
their power and wealth.
What a colossal task in these times of globalization has befallen that
leader who made the gesture of visiting our blockaded, assaulted and
threatened homeland! Are we not perhaps one terrorist country among
another 60 or more than could suffer a preventive and surprise attack?
That was stated now more than six years ago by the demented chief of
the empire, who met just five days ago with the G-20!
China is the only country in that group that is able to regulate via
the state a high growth figure, at the proposed rate of no less than
8% in the year 2009. The idea launched by the last Party Congress was
to quadruple the per capita Gross Domestic Product between 2000 and
2020, measured in constant values from 2007, the year in which the Congress
took place. He talked to me about that in detail. In that way it would
reach the equivalent of no less than $4,000 per capita by the end of
that period, in conditions of peace. I think that it should not be overlooked
that China is an emerging country, whose per capita income, with a much
lower population at the triumph of the Revolution, not did reach $400
per year per inhabitant and was totally isolated by imperialism. Compare
that with the $20,000 per capita or much higher figures currently enjoyed
by the developed capitalist countries, like Japan, Western Europe, the
United States and Canada. A number of these countries are in excess
of $40,000 per capita per year, although its distribution in society
is extremely unequal.
By using $586 billion of its hard currency reserves, which stand at
close to $2 trillion, accumulated on the basis of sweat and sacrifice,
it can stand up to the current crisis and continue advancing. Is there
any other country with that solidity?
Hu Jintao, president of China, secretary general of the Party and president
of the Central Military Commissions of the Party and government, is
a leader who is aware of his authority and knows how to exercise it
in plenitude.
The delegation he headed signed 12 draft agreements for modest economic
development in an area of the planet where the totality of the island's
small territory could be struck by hurricanes of increasing intensity,
evidence of the fact that the climate really is changing. The area in
China affected by the earthquake does not extend to more than 4% of
the surface of that great multinational state.
There are circumstances in which the size of the territory of one independent
country, its geographical location and the number of its inhabitants
play an important role.
Would the United States, which steals already trained intelligences
from everywhere, be in a condition to apply an Adjustment Act for Chinese
citizens similar to the one that it applies to Cuba? It is totally obvious
that it could not. Could it apply it to the whole of Latin America?
Evidently, it couldn't, either.
Meanwhile, our marvelous, contaminated and sole spacecraft continues
spinning on its imaginary axis, as one of the most viewed Venezuelan
television programs repeats.
It is not every day that a little state has the privilege of receiving
a visitor of the stature and prestige of Hu Jintao. Now he is traveling
on to Lima. There he has another grand meeting. Once again Bush will
be present, this time with seven less days in office.
It has been affirmed that the presence in Washington of just 20 leaders
from the countries present, their own security measures and the host's
legal suits against any attempt to physically liquidate them changed
the customs and habitual life of the city. What will the great city
of Lima be like? Without any doubt, the city will be taken over by the
Armed Forces; moving around will be a complicated task, as it will also
contain well trained agents from U.S. supra-nationals, whose interests
and plans will be known many years after the presidential terms of the
eventual leaders of the empire.
I expressed to him very synthetically some of our country's appreciations
on the habits of the neighbor to the North, which is trying to impose
on us its ideas, its way of thinking, and its interest via its fleets,
replete with nuclear weapons and attack bombardments; our appreciation
of Venezuela's solidarity with Cuba since the most critical years of
the Special Period; and the heavy blows of natural disasters. That President
Chávez, a great admirer of China, has been the firmest defender
of socialism as the only system capable of bringing justice to the peoples
of Latin America.
They have pleasant memories of the Bolivarian leader in Beijing.
President Hu Jintao reiterated his desire to continue developing relations
with Cuba, a country for which he has great respect.
The meeting lasted for one hour and 38 minutes. He was warm, friendly,
modest and made patent his sentiments of affection. I saw him as young,
healthy and strong. We wish our eminent and fraternal friend the greatest
success in his task. Thank you for your stimulating visit and the honor
of having an interest in a personal meeting with me!
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