Published by World Tibet Network News - Friday, December 1, 1995

By Seth Faison

BEIJING , Dec. 1, 1995 (N.Y. Times) - Fidel Castro began a visit to China on Thursday to embrace fellow leaders of one of the world's last communist-run nations, and to find a willing ally in his defiance of the United States.

The Cuban president, a belated convert to market reforms since aid from the Soviet Union dried up, and perhaps eager for a new source of handouts, enthusiastically praised China's economic miracle.

But the timing of his visit, with China's relations with the United States strained, suggests that it was welcomed by the Chinese mostly as a way to assert diplomatic independence from America, increasingly seen by some Chinese leaders as its nemesis because of prickly disputes over trade, Taiwan, and human rights.

It was probably no accident that Castro's 10-day visit comes a few days after a similar visit by Do Muoi, the Communist Party leader of Vietnam.

Castro, wearing his trademark olive military uniform, embraced the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, in front of television cameras, complete with three kisses, apparently trying to convince the world that they are old comrades.

At a signing ceremony for a minor increase in Chinese economic aid to Cuba, Castro seemed to charm his hosts by gracefully uttering "Xie xie" - "thank you" - in response to Jiang's "gracias."

Chinese-Cuban trade hovers around a relatively small $500 million, and the new economic aid that was announced on Thursday includes just a $3-million grant and an increase in a science and technology grant from $5 million to $8 million.

It is Castro's first visit to China, for, despite decades of proclaiming communist solidarity during his rule, his close alliance with the Soviet Union prevented him from becoming too friendly with China during those years.

A state-run Chinese newspaper, summing up China's new alliance with Cuba, praised Havana's defiance of the United States.

"China and Cuba both are socialist countries and both have experience facing `blockades' and `sanctions,' " the newspaper said on Thursday. "But the two countries do not fear blockades or strangleholds."

Castro went out of his way to flatter his hosts with a nod to Deng Xiaoping's principal semantic achievement, coining the phrase "socialism with Chinese characteristics" to justify market reforms and private ownership in a communist-run nation.

"Cuba is carrying out steady reform and opening, with a view toward building socialism with Cuban characteristics," Castro said at a three-hour meeting with Jiang, according to a report by the official New China News Agency. "We'll continue to march forward along such a road."

Jiang, who visited Havana in 1993, responded in kind. "China appreciates the Cuban government's support of China in the issues of Taiwan, Tibet, and human rights," Jiang said, according to the press agency. "The Chinese government will, as always, support Cuba in its just struggle to safeguard national independence and state sovereignty and oppose outside interference."

A bill pending in Congress would tighten the trade embargo on Cuba and punish countries that cooperate with Cuba, but it is unclear what effect that would have on China, if passed and signed into law.