Following the G20 in Washington, DC, many of the world’s leaders – OK, many of the world’s Communist and former Communist leaders (from Russia and China) – are heading to Cuba.
Why?
Could it be that as Castro fades and his brother moves to open up the economy, these countries, long linked by ties in ideology may be looking to stregthen capitlist bonds…
Or maybe they are just after some Cuba Libres.
According to the New York Times:
Tibetan exiles are scheduled to meet on Monday. The first conclave of its kind since 1991. The Dalai Lama has called for hundreds of Tibetans to gather in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, to help decide on a new strategy for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama said this month that his drive to secure autonomy for Tibet through negotiations with the Chinese government had failed, an admission that strengthened the hand of younger Tibetans who have long agitated for a more radical approach and who have demanded independence….The rebuke, the harshest from the Chinese government since the violence last spring, contributed to the breakdown of talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama that had been taking place since 2002.
“There is no trust in the Russia-U.S. relations, the trust we need,” Mr. Medvedev said, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, in Washington after participating in the summit meeting on the financial crisis Saturday that brought together the leaders of 20 countries. “Therefore we have great aspirations for the new administration.”
He also repeated his threat, first made the day after Mr. Obama was elected, to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad if the United States moved ahead with plans to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.
According to The Economist article:
If the 800m in China’s countryside are persuaded to spend their money rather than save it, stronger domestic consumption could give a big boost to an economy still skewed towards exports. But the government seems half-hearted in this structural shift: it has also announced a raft of measures to subsidise exports. And it is doing too little to ease the worries that make China’s people cling on to their cash: how to meet unexpected medical bills; how to pay for a good education for their children; how to provide for their old age. Government health spending especially, at less than 1% of GDP, is woefully low—and not tackled meaningfully in this package.
China and Laos continue to build closer ties.
This from the New York Times:
As a bill extending Russia’s presidency to six years from four barreled through the Russian legislature on Friday, it fell to the old-timers from the Communist Party to put up a fight.
But the money quote comes in the second graf:
“Why do we have to do this today?”Viktor I. Ilyukhin, a Communist legislator, said during discussions Friday in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament. “Why are we in such a hurry? A strict authoritarian regime has already been established in this country. There is already an unprecedented concentration of power in one person’s hands.”
North Korea’s state-run media outlets have released a flurry of reports of public appearances by the North’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, in what analysts on Thursday described as an effort to demonstrate to his people and the outside world that he is firmly in control, despite widespread rumors of ill health.
Analysts said the timing of recent reports about Mr. Kim was linked to the American presidential election.“Kim Jong-il wants to show that he is in control and that he has no problem being a partner of dialogue with the United States,” said Kim Yong-yun, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University.
He suggested that the North Korean leader might soon stage a “foolproof” demonstration of his health, for example by releasing a video of his public activities or paying a courtesy call to the Chinese Embassy in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. China is North Korea’s main ally.
China’s stimulus package may help support sales of Japanese farm equipment, Brazilian iron ore and California machine tools, taking some of the edge off what might be the worst global recession in three decades.
The ripple effect of the $586 billion plan announced on Nov. 9 underscores China’s increasingly important role in the world economy as its policy makers work to keep the country’s growth close to 8 percent in 2009. Merrill Lynch & Co. said expansion would have cooled to 5 percent without the program from 9.5 percent this year.
North Korea’s bar on international inspectors taking soil and waste samples from its reactor undermines efforts to check the communist state’s nuclear program, South Korea’s foreign minister said.
The U.S. removed North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism in October after the communist state agreed to inspections of its Yongbyon nuclear plant and other locations suspected of being part of the regime’s atomic program.
Kazakhstan expects to put the final touches on its fiscal stabilization plan by November 25. One of the government’s top priorities is shoring up the country’s wobbly banking sector.
“I think there should be significant movement in the next two weeks,” Masimov told a cabinet meeting on November 10. The prime minister added that the first benefits of a $15 billion stimulus package, announced in October, should become evident within days.