Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his two-day visit to Beijing this week was part of the creation of a “new world order.”
The frequent US critic, who was to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) yesterday, told reporters upon arriving the evening before that power in the world was shifting from the US to countries such as Iran, Japan and China.
“We are creating a new world, a balanced world. A new world order, a multipolar world,” Chavez said.
“The unipolar world has collapsed. The power of the US empire has collapsed,” he said. “Every day, the new poles of world power are becoming stronger. Beijing, Tokyo, Tehran ... It’s moving toward the East and toward the South.”
Chavez has made Beijing a frequent stop in his global travels to promote his agenda of anti-US world unity, stopping in the Chinese capital no less than six times since rising to power in 1998 elections.
His visit follows a sweep through the Middle East last week, including a stop in Iran, where he said he had little hope of better relations with Washington under US President Barack Obama because the US was still acting like an “empire.”
While China’s leaders have been low-key in response to Chavez’s rhetoric, its state-run industries have been eager to use Venezuela as a jumping-off point for their entry into South America.
Chinese companies in the mining and petroleum sector have been especially keen on securing South American mineral resources.
During his visit, Chavez said he planned to review with Chinese leaders a goal of boosting exports of Venezuelan oil to China from 380,000 barrels last year to 1 million barrels by 2013 — part of Venezuela’s strategy of diversifying oil sales away from the US.
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