Prakash Karat greets CPC vice-minister Li Jinjun at the CPM congress on Saturday as Sitaram Yechury and other Chinese delegates look on. (PTI)

Coimbatore, March 29: In her light-grey capri and sleeveless white top, furiously taking pictures on her digital camera, Terrie Albano looked like any other American tourist.

Except that she had come to India not to swoon over the Taj Mahal but to listen to Prakash Karat.

The CPM chief today had a rare audience for his state-of-the-world address — listeners from two of the planet’s most powerful countries, one topping his hate list and the other surely his favourite nation.

The US and China, whose ties with India are in the spotlight because of the nuclear deal and Tibetan unrest, both sent teams to the CPM’s 19th party congress that kicked off here today.

Albano, member of the Communist Party of United States of America’s national board, was all ears as Karat named her country nine times in his speech, whose written text ran into four pages.

The New Yorker, who looks fiftyish and edits her party’s newspaper, People’s Weekly World, agreed with all of it as did the other CPUSA delegate, Rama Kant Sharma, an Indian-American from New Jersey.

After Karat’s speech had “exposed” President George W. Bush’s “lies and deceit” on Iraq and ripped into the Indo-US nuclear deal, Albano said on the sidelines that “the nuclear deal is dangerous”.

She said without explaining that it “would affect the balance of power in the region” — possibly an echo of the Indian Left’s charge that Washington wants to use Delhi as a buffer against Beijing.

“The economic policy of President Bush is creating problems in the US economy,” added Albano, a commentator on social, security, labour and foreign policy issues. She argued that Bush’s policies had lowered spending in health and made university education costlier.

Albano and Sharma presented Karat with a memento relating to the Haymarket Affair of May 4, 1886, in Chicago where a bomb attack killed many at a rally supporting striking workers. The incident is believed to be one of the historical reasons behind the marking of May Day every year.

If America sent two, China sent six, including an English interpreter. The team, led by Li Jinjun, vice-minister of the Communist Party of China’s international department, easily received the maximum applause from the audience.

Li told The Telegraph he was happy with India’s — and the Indian Left’s — stand on Tibet. “We appreciate India’s position on Tibet. The communist parties in India also accept that Tibet is an internal problem of China.”

Li, who has invited Rahul Gandhi to Beijing to mark the 20th year of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s China visit, said his party had good relations “with the BJP too”.

“We are two growing countries and have good relations. I think there should be more people-to-people contact,” said Li, who left for Cyprus this evening.

“We are happy with the developing relations with China,” Karat said, praising China and Vietnam for “making remarkable economic progress and improving the well-being of their people”.

The Chinese delegation had a brief meeting with Karat.

Apart from Li and the interpreter, the team included four members from Li’s department: deputy directors Ji Ping and Du Xialoin, assistant secretary Jia Peg and official Wang Jiangqiang.