Bolivian leader jokes China could colonize US

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday joked that China was becoming such an economic powerhouse that it could soon colonize the United States.

“China is such a big country that I imagine in only a short time the United States will be a colony of China,” he said at a press conference in the central city of Cochabamba following a recent trip to Beijing.

Mr Morales said he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on the formation of a high-level bilateral committee to begin meeting in September to promote the industrialization of Bolivia's vast lithium resources.

China “is such a big country, so highly developed and industrialized that it is granting importance to Bolivia,”' added Mr. Morales, the leftist leader of one of South America's poorest countries. (AFP)