Reply #34: To a degree they are - both are in favor... [View All]

[Darranar]

of keeping everyone else servile, and both are content to keep the current system of trade between them more or less as it is.

But neither is particularly happy about the other being so powerful either. China does not particularly like the US messing around in Central Asia, nor does the US particularly like China doing the same thing in Latin America.

If Chávez plays both against the other - and he seems to be doing so pretty effectively at the moment - he can probably remain pretty independent of both.