Venezuela's Chavez in Beijing for state visit

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country is no longer the backyard of the US and that he finds it more important to visit Beijing than New York, as he arrived on Tuesday in China’s capital on first leg of an international tour.

The outspoken US critic hopes to boost ties with China’s communist leadership through increased oil sales, partly to reduce dependency on the United States, which still buys about 60 per cent of Venezuelan exports despite years of tensions. “China is showing the world that it isn’t necessary to harm anyone to be a great power. They are soldiers of peace,” Chavez said upon his arrival in Beijing, according to a Venezuelan government statement.

Asked about his absence from talks this week on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York, Chavez said: “It’s much more important to be in Beijing than in New York.”

Chavez’s visit comes amid stepped-up confrontation with the US, including Russia’s dispatch on Monday of a naval squadron to hold joint maneuvers with Venezuela’s navy.

The deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere is unprecedented since the Cold War and follows a weeklong visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers. “The only thing we demand is that our nation be respected,” Chavez said, according to the government statement. “We’re no longer the backyard of the United States.”

China is a key link in Chavez’s strategy to develop new markets for its oil exports, and Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, has ramped up shipments to China to 250,000 barrels a day as of April. It aims to lift that figure to 500,000 barrels a day by 2010.

Venezuela and China have also signed accords to build three refineries in China. Other plans call for building a refinery and launching a joint oil resource development project in the crude-rich Orinoco River belt and for China to build oil tankers for Venezuela. China will also launch Venezuela’s first satellite on November 1 and may sell the country fighter jets.

China’s Foreign Ministry says Chavez plans to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, with the sides signing documents on co-operation in justice, sports and other fields. Beijing has not commented on reports that Venezuela will buy two dozen fighters, reported to be K-8 Karakorum basic jet trainers developed jointly by China and Pakistan.

Chavez’s upcoming visit to Russia will be his second in about two months, to be followed by stops in Portugal and France, where Chavez is to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy.