AP: China Seizes Opportunity at Cuba Summit

[Eugene]

China Seizes Opportunity at Cuba Summit

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 14, 2006; 1:45 PM

HAVANA -- China hopes to expand its growing economic and political clout
at the Nonaligned Movement summit, influence that analysts say will come
at the expense of the United States, which passed up a similar invitation
to attend as an observer.

-snip-

The administration of President George W. Bush has declined to attend
the summit, and a press officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana said
it wouldn't comment on the Nonaligned Movement.

That's a mistake, according to Latin America analysts who have tracked
declining U.S. influence in a region where it can no longer count on the
unconditional support of political leaders, even though U.S. trade remains
the most powerful engine for their economies.

"Bush likes to use the saying 'You're either with us or against us' and they
are writing off the summit because they are non-aligned, which to them means
they are not with the U.S.," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center
for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091400826.html