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By Shane Croucher
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China made no public commitment to aid or other material support for longtime partner Venezuela after a recent call between their respective foreign ministers, expressing only verbal support for Caracas in a readout of the conversation, as the U.S. military blockades the South American country's sanctioned oil tankers in an escalating clash over drug cartels.
Beijing is balancing its relations with the socialist Maduro regime in Caracas and its own ambitions in Latin America against its need to maintain a stable situation with the Trump administration, after months of damaging volatility with Washington over trade, particularly on tariffs, rare earths, advanced chips, and China's role in fentanyl production.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil in a call on Wednesday that the two countries are "strategic partners" and that Beijing "opposes all forms of unilateral bullying and supports countries in defending their own sovereignty and national dignity."
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"Venezuela has the right to independently pursue mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries, and China believes that the international community understands and supports Venezuela’s position in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests," the readout said, originally in Chinese.
It made no direct mention of the U.S. or the Trump administration, whose blockade of Venezuela forces a choice on China: maintain its newly stable relations with the White House but weaken its standing among strategic partners by not offering aid to Venezuela in the showdown, or help prop up the Maduro regime and risk reigniting the economic war with Washington.
China has extended tens of billions of dollars in loans to Venezuela over the years, repaid by Caracas largely through oil shipments. On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it supports Venezuela’s request to convene an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump have exchanged invitations for state visits next year.
Trump's Venezuela Pressure Campaign Over Drugs, Oil
Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a blockade against oil tankers under American sanctions.
Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a pressure campaign against socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, adding disputes over oil investments to the motivation, along with accusations of drug trafficking.
"We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through," Trump told reporters. "You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it—they illegally took it."
U.S. oil companies dominated Venezuela's petroleum industry until the country's leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the country's socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.
While Venezuela’s oil has long dominated relations with the U.S., the Trump administration has focused on Maduro’s links to drug traffickers, accusing his government of facilitating the shipment of dangerous drugs into the Unites States. In his social media post Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes. Maduro denies the accusations.
U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast amid a massive military buildup that includes the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier. Maduro called the seizure "piracy."
The military has also carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed a total of at least 99 people, including four in a strike on Wednesday. Those attacks have prompted questions from lawmakers and legal experts about their legal justification. Trump also has said he is considering strikes on land.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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