China is currently the region’s second largest trading partner after the USA.
During Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s historic trip to China, the two nations signed 31 comprehensive agreements, officially elevating their ties to an “all-weather, all-test strategic partnership,” one of Beijing’s highest honors.
An article published on the web portal Geopolitical Economy said that China and Venezuela jointly criticized the “hegemonism” of Western powers. Beijing officially condemned the illegal sanctions imposed by Washington against Caracas.
Investigative journalist and analyst Ben Norton also notes in his work that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government will “strongly support” Venezuela’s “just cause against foreign interference.”
It also highlights that the global political and economic order is changing rapidly. One of the biggest changes the world has seen in the last 20 years is the relationship between China and Latin America.
Second business partner
Also remember that there was no major trade between China and Latin America at the beginning of the 21st century, but their economic relations have skyrocketed in the last two decades.
China is currently the region’s second largest trading partner after the USA.
Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela are the countries that trade more with China than with the United States. The Bolivarian nation has great economic potential, but has suffered for years from a brutal economic war waged by the North American country.
Blockade against Venezuela
In his analysis, Norton recalls that Donald Trump’s administration launched an attempted coup in 2019. Washington claimed that a little-known right-wing opposition politician, Juan Guaidó, was the country’s supposed “interim president,” even though he had never taken part in a presidential election.
The US pressured countries around the world to recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s alleged leader. At the same time, this country imposed one of the harshest sanctions regimes in history against Venezuela.
Washington’s goal was clear: to destroy Venezuela’s oil sector, depriving the left-wing government of revenue and leading to its overthrow.
Caracas alliance with Beijing
The agreements signed between the Venezuelan head of state after his meeting with Xi Jinping cover cooperation in a wide range of areas, including economic integration and trade, geology and mining, health, technology transfer, construction of social housing, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, etc. even space.
Beijing previously viewed its ties with Caracas as part of a “comprehensive strategic partnership.” Now China calls it an “all-weather strategic partnership.”
This shows that Venezuela is one of China’s closest allies, on par with Pakistan, one of its neighbors that plays an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s global infrastructure project.
In this regard, Xi stressed that “China will continue to strongly support Venezuela’s efforts to protect national sovereignty, dignity and social stability and its just cause against foreign interference.”
China and Venezuela issued a joint statement calling for “opposing all forms of hegemonism and power politics, as well as all forms of unilateralism.”
