Amid the sharp escalation in tensions between the United States and Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro mentioned China, the United States’ biggest economic rival, during a speech about education in the country.
While speaking about tutorials to learn how to do new things during the closing of the “First Pedagogical Congress of Bolivarian Teachers,” Maduro paused to present his new cell phone, which, he said, was a gift from China’s leader Xi Jinping.
Maduro said he communicated with Xi through that new phone by satellite.
“You want to learn something, you look for a tutorial. I want to learn how to use that camera that the cameraman has there, you put ‘camera tutorial such-and-such.’ I want to learn how to handle this new Huawei phone (China’s flagship brand in mobile devices), which is the most advanced in the world… This was given to me by President Xi Jinping, of China, I have it here. I communicate by satellite with him,” Maduro commented at the closing event.
“Ni hao, ni hao (hello). Xiexie, xiexie (thank you),” the Venezuelan president immediately added while pretending to have a phone call in Mandarin.
