Mereja Forum

[pastlast]

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09ASMARA363_a.html

1. (C) SUMMARY: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, who
trained as a political commissar in China during the depths
of the Cultural Revolution, continues to idolize Mao, remains
fond of China, and governs Eritrea and its relations with the
outside world based on his decades of experience as a
revolutionary guerrilla leader combined with his
interpretation of Maoist philosophy. END SUMMARY.

2. (C) LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION
-------------------------------
President Isaias made a surprise appearance at the Chinese
Embassy's reception celebrating the 60th anniversary of the
Communist takeover of China. In a rare breech of Eritrea's
strictly observed protocol, Isaias interacted with the
Chinese ambassador, despite not having officially received
his credentials. Isaias was quickly ushered into a private
dining room where he, five Chinese diplomats, and six senior
Eritrean officials ate Chinese food, drank Moutai, and fondly
discussed Sino-Eritrean relations. Romedan Mohamed Nur, who
trained in China with Isaias in the mid-1960s, was present
but largely ignored by the Eritrean president. Chinese
Ambassador Li Liansheng later provided a detailed read-out to
the ambassador. President Isaias mentioned ten times during
the course of the evening his "42-year long relationship with
China," dating from his 1967 training as a political
commissar during Mao's Cultural Revolution.
3. (C) PASS THE MOUTAI AND KEEP IT COMING
-----------------------------------------
Isaias ate little during the meal but drank almost a whole
bottle of high-proof Moutai, becoming visibly inebriated and
sentimental as the evening drew on. He remarked repeatedly
on his admiration of Chairman Mao and claimed that Mao laid
the foundation for all of China's subsequent achievements.
Other Chinese diplomats tell us Isaias dislikes Deng Xiaoping
because Deng attempted to undermine Mao's legacy. Isaias
avidly consumes biographies of Mao and has refused offers of
books on Deng and modern China. On a monthly basis the
Chinese ambassador's chef gets a request from Isaias to send
over a Chinese meal. Ambassador Li reported that Isaias
watches Chinese news on television. Now 63 years old,
President Isaias still plays a mean game of ping pong,
according to some observers, when his chronic lower back pain
permits.
4. (C) WHAT WOULD MAO DO?
-------------------------
While Isaias is not known to wear a bracelet embroidered with
WWMD?, he clearly reveres the revolutionary guerrilla
leader-[deleted]-ruling strongman. A young man of humble origins
who through ruthless determination rose to the top of a
revolutionary army and defeated a stronger foe, led his
country against foreign domination, and launched a wrenching
social revolution, Isaias probably sees many parallels
between his life and Mao's. Isaias' closure of Eritrea's
only university mirrors Mao's anti-intelligentsia campaigns
of the mid-1960s. His nationalization of the economy and the
wholesale conscription of Eritrean youth into a "national
service" of military duty and forced labor resemble some
aspects of Mao's early rule. Isaias eschews a blatant cult
of personality (unlike his hero), but brooks no opposition
and entertains no notions of pluralism--at least for the next
four decades. While Mao's China fought India, sent
"volunteers" to Korea, and tangled with the Soviet Union over
their border, Isaias has fought Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen
to establish his bonafides as a regional power. Ambassador
Li wryly commented that Isaias idolizes his relationship with
China, "perhaps because we are so far away."
5. (C) COMMENT: The influence of Maoist China on Isaias
should not be overdrawn, but it is there, perhaps most
importantly as a philosophical lodestone for Eritrea's
isolated and mercurial dictator. Despite China's evolution
beyond Maoist politics and economics, Isaias remains fond of
the PRC. Today China provides about $12m of "no questions
asked" assistance, is a source of easy-term military
purchases, has invested in Eritrea's promising mining sector,
and provides political top-cover in multilateral fora. While
Chinese today allow that Mao "was 70 percent correct," Isaias
seems to have adopted many of his policies from the other 30
percent. End Comment.