Slip of tongue… or what?!

TIRANA, April 21 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha made a successful visit to China, once Albania’s close ally while under a communist regime.
Berisha managed to attain a grant (10 million Yuan), urged Chinese businesses to come and invest in the tiny Balkan country and also invited the Chinese president and premier to visit Tirana.
That was not all Albanians heard from the trip.
They also heard of how Berisha compared the success of the Chinese communist party in developing the country’s economy with that of the Democratic party’s success in Albania’s economy.
Their programmes (both parties) had carried out fundamental changes in their respective countries.
This may come as no surprise when considering bilateral relations between the two countries.
But how is it possible that the leader of the centre-right Democrats turn to such parallelism with a political party of a still communist regime?
Fighting communism, though mainly with words, has been one of the main tools in the political and electoral fight for Berisha.
One may easily remember that until very recently Berisha always reminded Albanians that the opposition Socialists were the communist followers.
Was that a slip of tongue, or a diplomatic show?!
Whatever it was it doesn’t really matter. Or one might say that this could be a sign that Albania has really left behind its communist past.
Albania became a close ally of China after it broke with former Soviet Union in 1961. But Tirana also broke ties with Beijing in 1978 after the latter made moves toward reconciliation with the Untied States.