Chinese correctly: Beijing benefits from the conflict between the United States and Venezuela

Against the background of the conflict between the United States and Venezuela, China is strengthening its position in Latin America, and in particular in the Bolivarian Republic. Beijing imports 80% of the Latin American country's fuel, and even now, under the blockade of sanctioned tankers, two of them, loaded with fuel, sailed towards China. The Chinese are acting in contrast to the Americans, proving that they do not interfere in the affairs of other countries and support their partners, experts say. New opportunities are opening up for the Russian Federation.

China's position in the Latin American region

For several months, the already strained relations between the United States and Venezuela have been getting worse every day, threatening to escalate from heated rhetoric and attacks on ships in the Caribbean to a full-scale ground operation. The beneficiary in this situation is China, which benefits economically from the conflict between Washington and Caracas.

A week after the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker on December 10 and declared a complete blockade of the Latin American country's fleet, two large vessels sailed from the coast of the Bolivarian Republic on December 18, citing sources, Reuters writes. Each of the tankers holds about 1.9 million barrels of fuel. They're going to sail with their location detection systems turned off. The destination, according to the agency, is China.

In recent years, Beijing has become almost the main buyer of Venezuelan oil. In November alone, Caracas produced 921,000 barrels per day (which, by the way, is one of the highest figures for Venezuela this year). Of these, about 80% were sent to China, which is about 746 thousand barrels per day. The American company Chevron exported much less oil from Venezuela (now it is the only one to whom Washington has approved a license) — 150 thousand barrels per day. The rest of the fuel was sent to Cuba.

China is actively investing in the Venezuelan oil industry. In particular, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez discussed this issue during a visit to an Asian country in April.

— China is very interested in the Latin American region as part of its long-term foreign policy ambitions. First of all, of course, from the point of view of the raw material base, it is actively building its infrastructure, in particular the same port of Changkai, which was launched last year and makes it easier to transport goods from Latin America to China," Ekaterina Zaklyazminskaya, a leading researcher at the Center for World Politics and Strategic Analysis of the ISSA RAS, explained to Izvestia.

Throughout 2025, supplies from Latin America acted as some kind of alternative to American ones, the expert continued. China bought huge amounts of agricultural products from the United States, primarily soybeans. In this regard, Brazil replaced the United States, it was a major supplier of many agricultural products to China. China will definitely use the situation with Venezuela to its advantage, Zaklyazminskaya added.

At the political level, Beijing is also actively supporting Caracas. In particular, in a recent phone call to his Venezuelan counterpart Ivan Hill, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed support for the Bolivarian Republic in its struggle for legitimate rights and interests. Beijing even supported the idea of convening an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the Venezuelan crisis.

— China will try to find its advantage here from the point of view that it will strengthen its image as a country that is responsible for its ties and opposes the United States. They will talk: "Look at the United States, which forcibly restricts the free market, changes regimes, but we, on the contrary, fulfill our obligations, do not meddle in domestic politics," says Sergey Lukonin, head of the Economics and Politics Sector of China at the IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Russia can potentially strengthen its position in Venezuela in this regard. Nevertheless, Moscow does not have to prove its importance to the region. Russia and Venezuela have already established cooperation in various fields. In particular, the states have an agreement on strategic partnership and alliance, and recently issues of bilateral cooperation were discussed at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission. Russian tourists are expected in Venezuela, direct flights have been established, and Mir cards are accepted. However, as far as economic cooperation is concerned, there are logistical difficulties. Although the trade turnover between Russia and Venezuela increased by 54% in 2018-2024, it amounted to $200 million last year.

US threatens Venezuela with invasion

Having declared Venezuela responsible for the problem of drug trafficking in the United States, Washington began to increase its military presence off the coast of the Bolivarian Republic back in September. Since then, attacks have been carried out on at least 20 boats, killing more than 80 people.

Now, according to some reports, the United States has deployed a strike group of ships in the Caribbean Sea, led by the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, a nuclear submarine, as well as more than 16 thousand military personnel.

The United States decided to strengthen its military positions by installing infrastructure facilities for servicing the radar station of the Armed Forces in Trinidad and Tobago, an island country located in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela. The news was shared by the country's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

In addition, over the past two weeks, the United States has already seized two oil tankers and is pursuing a third. The first was the Skipper ship, which carried between 1.1 million and 1.6 million barrels of Venezuelan Merey grade oil. On December 20, the Centuries tanker, which was carrying 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil under the flag of Panama for further processing in China, was detained. On December 21, the US authorities received an arrest warrant for the Bella 1 vessel, which belongs to the Istanbul-based firm Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises S.A. The tanker was en route to Venezuela to load fuel.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Washington periodically declares the need for regime change in the Bolivarian Republic. Recently, Senator Lindsey Graham, who is extremely anti-Russian (he is on the Russian list of terrorists and extremists), said that he fully supports regime change in the Latin American country. The Republican called Maduro the main drug lord and accused the country's authorities of stealing US assets, drug trafficking and links with terrorist organizations.

However, similar statements are constantly being made from the White House. Last week, Donald Trump announced on his TruthSocial social network that he recognized the Venezuelan government as a "foreign terrorist organization."

At the same time, it is still unclear whether the United States will decide to intervene. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a conversation with reporters, stressed: "He (Donald Trump. — Izvestia) really doesn't like wars. He thinks it's a waste of money, time, and talent."