President Fidel Castro heaped praise on China's progress but made it clear, with Chinese President Hu Jintao looking on, that Cuba would not adopt China's capitalist path to economic growth.
| "Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it." |
"Socialism will remain in the end the only real hope for peace and the survival of our species," said Castro, in a grey business suit instead of his usual olive fatigues, at a ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution. From his wheelchair, Castro, 78, who is recovering from a fall and a broken knee, said Cuba and China share "the ideals of socialism," and that China "objectively speaking has become the most promising hope and the best example for all developing countries. I do not hesitate to say that it is now the main engine of world economic growth."
| But their economic reforms had nothing to do with it? |
Yet the Cuban president, whose government has backtracked on the few concessions to capitalism with which it has experimented, said: "each people must adapt its revolutionary strategy and goals to the specific conditions of its own country." |