Chavez does China, or China is doing Chavez...

Venezuela's loudmouth whispers to Beijing, but it's not likely Mao's heirs will go for his anti-American policies.

By William Ratliff, WILLIAM RATLIFF is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
August 25, 2006

"But to the degree that Chavez is successful in destabilizing the Americas, it will be more difficult for China to enforce trade, investment and other agreements and to guarantee the safe and efficient delivery of oil and other resources from producers in Latin America to China. And for China, nothing is more important than a guaranteed supply of resources necessary for continuing domestic growth. So that would be bad.

Chavez has often tried to draw China into his disputes with the U.S., without much success. Thus far, most Chinese activities in Venezuela have been largely what one might expect from a large, rapidly modernizing nation seeking to overcome 150 years of failure and humiliation and planning to take its place as a major "stakeholder" in the modern world.

But despite colorful grandstanding, Chavez is not likely to make significant headway on this trip either. "

Taken from LA Times. (*) Click on the title to read the whole article.

I wish that Chavez really would be doing China, in terms of getting a good economic deal from them, but the reality is more like China is doing Chavez. I guess in politics is a must than one has to take advantage of the challenged ones.