Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing cannot accept any country acting as the “world’s judge” after the United States captured Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

The world’s second-largest economy has provided Venezuela with an economic lifeline since the U.S. and its allies ramped up sanctions in 2017, purchasing roughly $1.6 billion worth of goods in 2024, the most recent full-year data available.

Almost half of China’s purchases were crude oil, customs data shows, while its state-owned oil giants had invested around $4.6 billion in Venezuela by 2018, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank, which tracks Chinese overseas corporate investment.

  • bunchberry@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    China obviously doesn’t give af about supplanting the US as a world power. If they did they would actually do stuff internationally. There is no Chinese equivalent to NATO. All they will do in regards to Venezuelan president being kidnapped is strongly condemn it. They won’t even offer PSUV any security guarantees. Literally all the Chinese government believes in is (1) trading with as many people as possible and (2) reuniting its breakaway territories. They have no ambitions beyond that. It is not true that China does business mostly with countries rejected by the Americans, but it does business with literally everyone. Chinese love to trade with everyone. While Americans media constantly criticizes China on every calling for regime change attacking their political system their leaders etc, the only time you ever hear criticism of the US on Chinese media is when the US does something that is viewed as harming trade, like the tariffs.