MONTEGO BAY, St James – Jamaica Labour Party deputy leader Dr Horace Chang and the party’s spokesman on justice, Delroy Chuck, left the island yesterday for a one-week visit to Beijing, China, as guests of the Chinese Communist Party.

While in China, the JLP delegation will meet with officials of the Communist Party of China as well as the country’s secretary of international relations.

Chang told the Observer shortly before his departure yesterday that the JLP would use the visit to strengthen the relationship between the two parties.

“The Labour Party will use the visit to strengthen the fraternal relationship and to examine our entire bilateral relationship in some detail so we will know how to operate once we get into government,” said Chang.

He said China has been promoting its relationship with several Caribbean countries over the last few years, adding that the country was obviously using Jamaica as a focal point for the deepening of the relationship in the region.

Earlier this year, Jamaica established a resident mission in Beijing, headed by Ambassador Wayne McCook.

In June Prime Minister P J Patterson, on a visit to Beijing, signed four bilateral agreements with the People’s Republic of China, covering the areas of bauxite, education and technical cooperation.

The JLP delegation is expected to return home on October 26.