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Costa Rica's Arias is all business as he meets Hu Jintao

The Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was in Beijing yesterday for talks with the country's leaders on his first visit since switching diplomatic ties from Taiwan.

Arias accused Taiwan of being stingy with aid when he switched relations nearly five months ago.

But he also acknowledged that his decision to go with China was related to Costa Rica's desire to bolster its economy.

Arias, who has said he would be looking for investment and trade opportunities during his visit, was scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) yesterday.

Meetings with legislative chief Wu Bangguo (吳邦國) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) were planned for today.

"For Chinese businesses, Costa Rica is a very attractive market, not only because of the education level of its workers, but also for the potential to export to the United States tax-free," Arias said in a statement before leaving San Jose.

Arias' trip follows his country's vote to join the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US.

China is Costa Rica's second-biggest trading partner, behind the US, with sales of US$1 billion to the Asian powerhouse and imports of US$618 million last year.

China continues to claim sovereignty over Taiwan and opposes anything that appears to back its separate status from the mainland -- especially formal diplomatic ties with other countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused China of offering Costa Rica an "astronomical figure" to ditch Taipei.

"Costa Rica has been the first Central American country that has broken relations with Taiwan to ally with the People's Republic of China," said Xu Shicheng, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Latin American Studies.

"To the People's Republic of China this has enormous importance. We believe it is going to set an example to other countries in Central America," he said in comments translated from Spanish.

Arias is the first foreign leader Chinese officials were meeting since an important Communist Party congress ended earlier this week, which Xu said underscored the importance Beijing placed on ties with Costa Rica.
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