Big loser China brands US of ‘colonial pillaging’

Donald Trump has opened up a Pandora’s box after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The military raid to seize him and his wife and first lady, Cilia Flores, in Caracas over the weekend has sent shock waves across China, and the rest of the world.

The decision by the United States president came after the White House branded Venezuela of “narco-terrorism.” Maduro has been accused of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government,” which has fueled a drug-trafficking operation that has flooded the US with cocaine.

Ally Beijing has reacted with white-knuckle horror since it relies on Venezuelan oil. More than half of the country’s crude exports end up in China. “Washington’s justification of it being a ‘counter narcotics’ action is neither credible nor legitimate,” state-run China Daily raged.

“What the world is witnessing is not a ‘rules-based’ order, but colonial pillaging. Upholding sovereignty and noninterference is not optional. It is the foundation of global stability – and must be defended,” the English-language mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party stated.

Crude power:

• Still, Trump has warned under his new National Security Strategy that Latin America is paramount to America’s sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere.
• Venezuela risks becoming the first target of his foreign policy doctrine, including its vast oil reserves, which are the largest on the planet, and other mineral wealth.

[Belt and Road Initiative] and other projects face a new kind of disruption.

Abishur Prakash, author of the Mr Geopolitics newsletter

Why that matters: “The oil business [there] has been a bust … for a long time. We are going to have our very large United States oil companies … spend billions of dollars, fix the broken infrastructure … and start making money for the country,” Trump told a media briefing.

Delve deeper: But this is not just about Venezuela, it is also a geopolitical broadside aimed at China and its junior partner Russia, as well as other members of the BRICS+ group. For now, all they can do is watch from “the sidelines.”

Between the lines: Beijing is in danger of being the biggest loser as Trump decides Venezuela’s fate. China has up to “US$60 billion worth of projects [and loans] in Venezuela,” Abishur Prakash, the author of the Mr Geopolitics newsletter, wrote over the weekend.

Big picture: “Significantly more [is] invested across [the Latin American] region. [Now,] its BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] and other projects face a new kind of disruption [and] paralysis. The Sino-Russian axis just shrunk a little smaller,” he posted on Substack.

Bottom line: “[But] there is much, much more at stake. While not connected directly to Venezuela, what the US has done in Caracas could be replicated in Tehran, as protests swell in Iran,” Prakash argued about the corrupt theocracy.

China Factor comment: Ramifications of Trump’s regime change have reverberated in Beijing and Moscow. They have even strengthened Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and China’s threats against Taiwan. The specter of 1930s-style turmoil looms large.