venezuela president visit china

China’s Xi says ‘upgrading’ Venezuela relations after meeting Maduro

Two leaders sign agreements on economy, trade and tourism during meeting in Beijing.

China’s President Xi Jinping has held a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, during which the two leaders agreed to upgrade their countries’ relations.

Chinese state media said the two leaders on Wednesday signed several bilateral cooperation documents focused on areas including the economy, trade and tourism after the talks in Beijing.

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Xi said China would elevate its ties with Venezuela to an “all-weather strategic partnership”, a label reserved for a select few of its diplomatic partners. He also pointed out that the two countries are partners with shared development, highlighting that both are “good friends with mutual trust”.

Venezuela said it actively supports China’s Belt and Road Initiative to boost global trade infrastructure, Chinese state media said, referring to an upcoming conference in China next month. China says it has signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organisations.

Maduro said Venezuela is also willing to closely communicate and cooperate with China within multilateral frameworks such as the BRICS mechanism and the United Nations.

Venezuela is actively courting membership of BRICS, a group of major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which recently favoured expansion and welcomed new members.

Maduro has cultivated ties with China throughout his years in power, securing support for his country in the form of loans, cash and investment worth tens of billions of dollars.

Last week, Maduro posted on social media that his “historic” visit was aimed at “strengthening cooperation and the construction of a new world order”.

China is Venezuela’s main creditor, loaning about $50bn to the OPEC member in the 2010s. Venezuela is repaying the debt with shipments of oil, of which it has some of the largest reserves in the world.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has hailed ties with Venezuela as “rock solid”, calling the two countries “comprehensive strategic partners”.

About seven million people have left Venezuela during a complex political and humanitarian crisis that has been continuing for the past decade. The country is reliant on oil as its main export but has faced sanctions from the United States.

Nicolás Maduro visits China to try to alleviate Venezuela’s economic crisis

The venezuelan leader seeks to strengthen ties with beijing as attempts at rapprochement with washington remain fruitless.

On Tuesday morning, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro connected live with his viewers from Shandong province, one of China’s industrial centers, to broadcast a new episode of Con Maduro+ [With Maduro+] while on an official visit to the People’s Republic. He praised China’s economic, social and technological development, referring to the nation as a “sister country” that he admires “deeply.” After a two-hour-long propagandistic program full of nods to his “historic visit”—he started the show by announcing that he was “imbued with Asian spirituality” and signed off by reading some of Lao Tse’s millenary verses—he set off for Beijing. Maduro said that he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the capital in the next few days, although Beijing has not confirmed the meeting.

Maduro is on a lengthy visit. He landed in China last Friday, seeking to pursue an eminently economic agenda and find solutions to the crisis afflicting Venezuela; Maduro is expected to remain in the People’s Republic until Thursday. The Venezuelan president wants to strengthen ties between the two countries, which have weakened in recent years, and to realign interests in a polarized international environment characterized by the tense relationship between the United States and Beijing.

“In recent years, thanks to the personal commitment of President Xi Jinping and President Maduro, China-Venezuela relations have withstood the test of a changing international landscape and remained rock-solid,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last week at a routine appearance. Mao emphasized that China is “willing to work with Venezuela to draw up a plan to strengthen bilateral relations” and “take the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level”

On Saturday, the Venezuelan leader was welcomed in Shenzhen, the Chinese technological powerhouse, where he was impressed by an aerial show of luminous drones. Maduro also visited Shanghai, the Asian country’s financial capital, where he held a meeting with former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday. Rousseff is currently overseeing the New BRICS Development Bank, which is based in Shanghai. “It is a bank made by developing countries and for developing countries,” Maduro told Rousseff.

A few days earlier, he had already expressed Venezuela’s willingness to become a new member of BRICS. The platform just opened entry to six new partners, following a summit held at the end of August in Johannesburg, South Africa; that move has been interpreted as a geopolitical triumph for Beijing in the race to establish itself as a counterweight to the West. This international platform, Maduro said on Saturday in an interview with the official Xinhua news agency, has become “the major engine for accelerating the process of a new world’s birth, a world of cooperation, where the Global South has the primary voice.”

After a meeting on Monday with Lin Wu, the secretary of the Communist Party of Shandong province, a region with 100 million inhabitants, Maduro expressed his intention to use this region as a model in the eastern Venezuelan oil states of Anzoátegui and Monagas. During the meeting, they talked about “the oil, gas, industrial and agricultural possibilities” of this new connection, as he explained on Con Maduro+ . Maduro’s visits to Shanghai and Shenzhen have included similar cooperation announcements.

Beijing is the Venezuelan state’s main financial supporter. The South American nation’s economy has been experiencing a deep crisis for years, for which Caracas blames the international sanctions imposed against the country by the United States and the European Union; the latter parties demand free elections in Venezuela as a condition for lifting the sanctions, which have meant that the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves has difficulties in exporting hydrocarbons and accessing international credit.

Although the United States and Venezuela have maintained high-level public and secret contacts in recent months in an attempt to iron out differences and arrive at a rapprochement, the negotiations have not yet borne fruit. Maduro’s official trip to China puts additional pressure on Washington, while Beijing struggles to keep Venezuela within its sphere of influence.

China is Venezuela’s largest creditor, and Venezuela is the Latin American country that owes Beijing the most money: since 2007, it has received some $60 billion (about €56 billion) in loans from the Chinese state, according to the Inter-American Dialogue think tank’s financial database. The restructuring of this enormous amount of money has been one challenge in the relations between the two countries, and it figured prominently in Maduro’s last visit to Beijing, in 2018.

China is the world’s largest importer of oil and also the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude, according to energy consultancy Vortexa. Since 2022, average flows from Caracas to Beijing are around 430,000 barrels per day, 60% to 70% of Venezuelan exports, Emma Li, a Vortexa analyst specializing in China, explains by email. “These barrels (mostly heavy crude and some residual fuel oil) are relabeled as Malaysian [sourced] diluted bitumen or Malaysian crude at Chinese customs,” Li adds. Officially, China customs data shows no imports of Venezuelan crude since 2019.

“We are leaving…on a train bound for the Chinese capital…for a meeting with the future, for a meeting with our brother president, Xi Jinping, to reach important agreements that will build the historic relationship founded by our commander, Hugo Chávez, even further,” Maduro said at the end of his program on Tuesday. Chávez, who died in 2013, played a key role in strengthening the ties between the two nations.

The Venezuelan president’s entire visit has been replete with expressions of fascination with the Asian giant. In the interview published in Xinhua, Maduro stressed China’s role in the emergence of “a fairer world.” The country, he said, “has ushered in a new era of the emergence of non-colonialist, non-imperialist, non-hegemonic superpowers.” He added that “today, [Beijing] is indicating the way to economic development, technological development, social stability [and] winning, building, and strengthening independence.”

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Venezuela's Maduro seeks to renew Beijing ties amid China-West tensions

By Andrew Hayley, Vivian Sequera and Marianna Parraga

BEIJING/CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro arrived in China on Friday, his first visit in five years, to renew engagement between the two countries as China's ties sour with the West and the South American country seeks fresh financing.

China, the world's largest oil importer, is Venezuela's largest creditor and a key customer and player in the OPEC member's energy industry, which has the world's largest proven crude reserves.

Energy trade, debt repayment and new financing likely are the main focus of the Sept. 8-14 visit, officials and sources said. Venezuela owes over $10 billion to China, according to independent data.

Since the U.S. imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, Caracas' debt repayment to China has slowed and state oil company PDVSA is no longer shipping crude directly to its Chinese partners, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp and PetroChina.

Maduro's arrival follows meetings between a Venezuelan delegation, including the vice president and oil minister, and Chinese officials including Vice President Han Zheng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing and Shanghai earlier this week，according to China's foreign ministry.

The two countries "closely coordinate and cooperate in international and regional affairs, firmly support each other, and jointly oppose hegemonism and unilateralism," Han told the Venezuelan delegation, according to a report from Chinese state media outlet CCTV on Friday.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea said in a post on X on Friday that the Venezuelan delegation met executives from the Shanghai International Energy Exchange and the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.

China wants to use the Shanghai exchanges for yuan energy deals with oil producers. "They are key for energy trade and contract formulation for futures in Asia," Tellechea said.

Beijing's decision to host Maduro coincides with a G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend. Maduro last visited China in 2018, when he met with Xi.

OIL AND DEBT

Venezuela remains heavily indebted to China following $50 billion granted through credit lines and oil-for-loan deals dating back to 2007 under the late President Hugo Chavez's administration.

A rout in oil prices and falling output at Venezuelan fields meant that the cash-strapped government was forced to ask for grace periods on debt owed to China in 2016.

In 2020, the Maduro administration and Chinese banks again agreed to a grace period on some $19 billion of Chinese debt, according to Reuters reporting.

Maduro's officials are now in talks with China for debt repayment and a fresh credit line for infrastructure projects to be built by Chinese firms in Venezuela, sources with knowledge of the negotiations said.

Previous attempts to get financing from China have failed over Venezuela's repayment capacity. But since U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has eased some sanctions on Venezuela and could continue to do so if Maduro agrees to a presidential election, PDVSA is working to boost proceeds from oil exports.

Despite sanctions on Venezuela, China imported around 390,000 barrels per day of crude from the country between January and August this year, totalling roughly 12.9 million metric tons, data from commodities consultancy Vortexa showed.

Most Venezuelan cargoes are transferred via third countries such as Malaysia. China reported no direct crude imports from Venezuela in official customs data last year or thus far this year, but Venezuelan officials have said they want to cut middlemen to China.

CNPC holds a 40% stake in the Petrolera Sinovensa project in the vast Orinoco Belt alongside PDVSA. CNPC stopped lifting Venezuelan oil in mid-2019 after former U.S. President Donald Trump tightened sanctions against the South American exporter, though other Chinese entities have continued to make shipments.

(Reporting by Andrew Hayley, Liz Lee, Joe Cash and Shanghai newsroom; Vivian Seuqera and Mayela Armas in Caracas; and Marianna Parraga in HoustonEditing by Christopher Cushing, Frances Kerry and Marguerita Choy)

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Venezuela's Maduro to visit China to re-engage amid China-West tensions

BEIJING - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro will visit China over Sept. 8-14, China's foreign ministry said on Friday, marking renewed engagement between the two countries amid deepening tensions between Beijing and Western capitals.

Maduro's arrival will follow meetings between a Venezuelan delegation, including the country's vice president and oil minister, and Chinese officials including foreign minister Wang Yi in Shanghai earlier this week，according to China's foreign ministry.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a post on X on Friday that the two governments were strengthening bilateral relations, and expanding "strategic cooperation and international joint work, in favour of peace and respect for the principles and purposes of the UN Charter."

The visit coincides with the G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, which China's president Xi Jinping will not attend.

Maduro last visited China in 2018, when he met with Xi in Beijing.

Energy investment and cooperation is likely to be a key focus for the trip. China is the world's largest importers of crude oil, while Venezuela has the largest proven reserves.

Despite US sanctions on Venezuelan oil, China imported around 283 million barrels, or around 38.8 million metric tons, of crude from the country last year, according to data from Kpler. Most Venezuelan shipments are transferred via third countries such as Malaysia.

China reported no crude imports from Venezuela in official customs data last year or thus far this year.

Chinese state-owned PetroChina holds a 40% stake in the Sinovensa project in the Orinoco belt alongside Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The company stopped carrying Venezuelan oil in August 2019 after the Trump administration tightened sanctions against the South American exporter.

Venezuela is also heavily indebted to China following a $50 billion oil-for-loan deal agreed in 2007 by then-president Hugo Chavez. In 2020, the Maduro administration and Chinese banks agreed a grace period for some $19 billion of this debt, according to Reuters reporting. REUTERS

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• Venezuelan president to visit China

At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros will pay a state visit to China from Sept. 8 to 14, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

China and Venezuela are each other's comprehensive strategic partners. In recent years, thanks to the personal commitment of President Xi and President Maduro, the China-Venezuela relations have withstood the test of the evolving international landscape and remained rock-solid, said Mao Ning, another spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, at a regular press briefing on Friday.

"The two countries' political mutual trust has grown more solid, and our cooperation in various sectors has further deepened," said Mao.

Through President Maduro's visit, China hopes and stands ready to work with Venezuela to draw a blueprint for the growth of bilateral relations in the new era, bring the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level, and make new contribution to world peace and stability as well as international fairness and justice, she added.

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• ​At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros will pay a state visit to China from Sept. 8 to 14, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro To Visit China Amid Beijing-West Tensions

The visit coincides with the G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, which China's president Xi Jinping will not attend.

Maduro's arrival will follow meetings between a Venezuelan delegation

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro will visit China over Sept. 8-14, China's foreign ministry said on Friday, marking renewed engagement between the two countries amid deepening tensions between Beijing and Western capitals.

Maduro's arrival will follow meetings between a Venezuelan delegation, including the country's vice president and oil minister, and Chinese officials including foreign minister Wang Yi in Shanghai earlier this week, according to China's foreign ministry.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a post on X on Friday that the two governments were strengthening bilateral relations, and expanding "strategic cooperation and international joint work, in favour of peace and respect for the principles and purposes of the UN Charter."

Maduro last visited China in 2018, when he met with Xi in Beijing.

Energy investment and cooperation is likely to be a key focus for the trip. China is the world's largest importers of crude oil, while Venezuela has the largest proven reserves.

Despite US sanctions on Venezuelan oil, China imported around 283 million barrels, or around 38.8 million metric tons, of crude from the country last year, according to data from Kpler. Most Venezuelan shipments are transferred via third countries such as Malaysia.

China reported no crude imports from Venezuela in official customs data last year or thus far this year.

Chinese state-owned PetroChina holds a 40% stake in the Sinovensa project in the Orinoco belt alongside Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The company stopped carrying Venezuelan oil in August 2019 after the Trump administration tightened sanctions against the South American exporter.

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Venezuela is also heavily indebted to China following a $50 billion oil-for-loan deal agreed in 2007 by then-president Hugo Chavez. In 2020, the Maduro administration and Chinese banks agreed a grace period for some $19 billion of this debt, according to Reuters reporting.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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On the strategic relationship between Venezuela and China

Hugo Chávez understood earlier than other Latin American left-wing leaders the rising Asian power’s commitment to build a multipolar world

During a state visit to the People’s Republic of China in September 2023, Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro met president Xi Jinping and both agreed to strengthen the relationship of their countries by establishing seven sub commissions to elevate it to the level of ‘all-weather strategic partnership’ . This is the culmination of a relationship that began with president Hugo Chávez’s first visit to Beijing in 1999, the very first year of his presidency.

Chávez’s first visit went well beyond friendly diplomacy since Venezuela’s president and the then president of China, Jiang Zemin, signed fifteen cooperation and commercial agreements. This was followed by President Jiang’s visit to Venezuela in 2001. Trade between the two countries in 1998 amounted to a paltry USD 182.8 million, which would grow hundred-fold by the 21st century’s second decade.

In his 1999 visit Chávez described the People’s Republic as “a true model and example of mutual respect”, adding “we [in Venezuela] have developed an autonomous foreign policy, independent from any world power and on that, we resemble China.” After that, high officials from both governments would visit each other’s country to develop a commercial and political relationship, which has grown stronger ever since.

Whilst Hugo Chávez was president of Venezuela, he visited China in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. President Maduro did so in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023. For their part, Chinese leaders also visited Venezuela: after Jiang Zemin’s 2001 visit, Xi Jinping (then vice-president) visited in 2009 and in 2013, president Hu Jintao planned a visit in 2010 (interrupted due an earthquake in China), and Xi Jinping, as president, visited in 2014.

This article, part one in a three-part series, by Francisco Dominguez—an expert on Latin American politics, National Secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, and Friends of Socialist China advisory group member—endeavors to chart the evolution of the relationship between Bolivarian Venezuela and the People’s Republic of China and its significance for Latin America as a whole.

Being a consummate strategist, Hugo Chávez understood earlier than other Latin American left-wing leaders, the significance and weight of China in world politics and economics, especially, the rising Asian power’s commitment to build a multipolar world. Chávez, an avid reader, endowed with a formidable intellect, was also aware not only of the significance of the 1949 Chinese revolution and the leading role played by Mao Zedong, but also of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform in bringing about China’s extraordinary economic development. He knew that given the affinities between the Bolivarian and Chinese revolutions, the People’s Republic was a friendly ally.

Chávez communicated as much to his host, China’s president Jiang Zemin, and to the people of China in his first visit to the People’s Republic in October 1999. During the visit he went to Mao’s Mausoleum and declared, “I have been a Maoist all my life”. The 1999 visit to China was part of a tour for markets for Venezuelan and potential commercial partners to help break the overwhelming economic dominance of the United States over Venezuela. The tour included visits to Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Though the tour produced positive results in all the other Asian countries, the outcome of his visit to China went well beyond all expectations: to the already existing eight cooperation agreements between Venezuela and China signed since Chávez coming to office in February 1999, his visit in October produced seven more covering the fields of energy, oil, credits to purchase agricultural machinery, investment, diplomacy and academia.

Chávez combined his strategic political audacity in promulgating an anti-neoliberal constitution in 1999, with a vigorously independent foreign policy seeking to establish strong links of every kind with the People’s Republic of China, as an alternative to Venezuela’s heavy dependence on the US. The Comandante knew Washington had activated all its resources aimed at ousting him and eliminating his government – perceived by the US as an abhorrent anomaly. Chávez’s political courage is even more impressive considering that in 1999, Latin America, with the exception of Cuba, was a sea of neoliberalism.

Washington’s relations with the People’s Republic had begun to sour because in 1996 Clinton had authorized a visit by Taiwan president, Lee Teng-hui, reversing a fifteen-year-old policy against granting visas to Taiwan’s leaders. Worse, in May 1999, NATO, during its war against Yugoslavia, had “accidentally” bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade killing three Chinese journalists. Though for Venezuela and China, the United States was an important trading partner, they both agreed to comprehensive levels of cooperation knowing that over time it would be viewed with hostility in Washington.

Hugo Chávez opened the gates and was a pioneer in the relations with the Peoples’ Republic of China for the rest of Latin America. Chávez was elected in 1999; the second left wing government in this ‘Pink Tide’ to be elected was Lula in 2002 in Brazil, who would be inaugurated in 2003. That is, four years later. Between 1999 and 2003, Chávez’s government faced intense US-led destabilization, which included right wing street violence, a worldwide media demonization campaign, national protests, economic sabotage, a short-lived coup d’état and a 64-day oil lockout that nearly brought about the country’s economic collapse. Though fully aware of this context, president Jiang Zemin paid a formal visit to Venezuela in 2001, occasion in which both countries decided to establish a “Strategic Association for Shared Development” and set up a High Level Chinese-Venezuelan Commission.

Venezuelas Maduro to visit China to reengage amid China-West tensions

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro points while meeting Colombia's new ambassador to Venezuela, at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 16, 2023.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro will visit China over Sept. 8-14, China's foreign ministry said on Friday, marking renewed engagement between the two countries amid deepening tensions between Beijing and Western capitals.

Maduro's arrival will follow meetings between a Venezuelan delegation, including the country's vice president and oil minister, and Chinese officials including foreign minister Wang Yi in Shanghai earlier this week, according to China's foreign ministry.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a post on X on Friday that the two governments were strengthening bilateral relations, and expanding "strategic cooperation and international joint work, in favor of peace and respect for the principles and purposes of the UN Charter."

The visit coincides with the G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, which China's president Xi Jinping will not attend.

Maduro last visited China in 2018, when he met with Xi in Beijing.

Energy investment and cooperation is likely to be a key focus for the trip. China is the world's largest importers of crude oil, while Venezuela has the largest proven reserves.

Despite US sanctions on Venezuelan oil, China imported around 283 million barrels, or around 38.8 million metric tons, of crude from the country last year, according to data from Kpler. Most Venezuelan shipments are transferred via third countries such as Malaysia.

China reported no crude imports from Venezuela in official customs data last year or thus far this year.

Chinese state-owned PetroChina holds a 40% stake in the Sinovensa project in the Orinoco belt alongside Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The company stopped carrying Venezuelan oil in August 2019 after the Trump administration tightened sanctions against the South American exporter.

Venezuela is also heavily indebted to China following a $50 billion oil-for-loan deal agreed in 2007 by then-president Hugo Chavez. In 2020, the Maduro administration and Chinese banks agreed a grace period for some $19 billion of this debt, according to Reuters reporting.

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latest stories

Venezuelan president to visit China

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2023-09-08 21:25:01

BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros will pay a state visit to China from Sept. 8 to 14, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

China and Venezuela are each other's comprehensive strategic partners. In recent years, thanks to the personal commitment of President Xi and President Maduro, the China-Venezuela relations have withstood the test of the evolving international landscape and remained rock-solid, said Mao Ning, another spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, at a regular press briefing on Friday.

"The two countries' political mutual trust has grown more solid, and our cooperation in various sectors has further deepened," said Mao.

Through President Maduro's visit, China hopes and stands ready to work with Venezuela to draw a blueprint for the growth of bilateral relations in the new era, bring the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level, and make new contribution to world peace and stability as well as international fairness and justice, she added. ■

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How Venezuelans react to President Nicolas Maduro’s state visit to China

Stephen Gibbs

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing during his state visit to China. The visit is being closely watched in Caracas.

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Venezuelan President Maduro to visit China

(FILES) President Nicolas Maduro (Photo by Federico Parra / AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will visit China from Friday, the foreign ministry in Beijing said, as the oil-rich socialist country seeks to shore up its ailing finances.

China is Venezuela’s main creditor and has close relations with the internationally isolated nation, whose GDP has contracted by 80 percent in a decade because of an economic crisis.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning hailed ties with Venezuela as “rock solid”, calling the two countries “comprehensive strategic partners”.

“In recent years under the direction of President Xi Jinping… cooperation in various fields has been deepening,” she told a regular briefing.

“China is willing to use President Maduro’s visit to Venezuela as an opportunity to plan the blueprint for the development of China-Venezuela relations in a new era,” she added.

Beijing would also seek to “promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to a new level, and make new contributions to promoting world peace and stability, maintaining international fairness and justice”, she said.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez visited Shanghai and Beijing this week, meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in one of the highest-level China visits by officials from Caracas in years.

“We reinforced our bilateral relationship, expanded strategic cooperation and joint international work for peace and the respect of the UN charter’s principles and goals,” Rodriguez said in a post on social media website X.

The visit was also aimed at securing fresh oil investment from Beijing and discussing a possible joint venture between Venezuelan and Chinese petroleum firms, Bloomberg reported.

Venezuela has long sought Chinese help in bolstering its crisis-hit economy, which is suffering from some of the world’s worst inflation.

– Loans from China – Maduro last visited Beijing in 2018 — his 10th trip to China — where he praised Xi’s vision of a “common destiny for humanity”.

The Venezuelan leader, who frequently rails against the United States, said it was a destiny of peace “without a hegemonic empire that blackmails, that dominates, that attacks the people of the world”.

Xi also visited Venezuela in 2014.

China loaned about $50 billion to OPEC member Venezuela in the 2010s, with Caracas repaying the debt with shipments of oil, of which it has some of the largest reserves in the world.

It owed $20 billion to Beijing in 2018.

China has also provided extensive technological assistance to Venezuela in expanding control over its population, according to the Atlantic Council.

“The homeland card, inspired by China’s national identity card program, is used by the Venezuelan regime to provide food and medicine to citizens, as well as to track voting and social media use,” the think tank said in a 2020 report.

Maduro’s visit comes as world leaders gather in India for a G20 summit — which Xi is skipping — and after the BRICS meeting in South Africa last month that the Chinese leader did attend.

Maduro, the heir to firebrand leftist Hugo Chavez, last won an election in 2018. That vote was criticised internationally for irregularities.

The United States, then led by President Donald Trump, declared Maduro to be illegitimate and recognised the then-opposition leader Juan Guaido, imposing sweeping sanctions on Venezuela including its oil sector.

But Guaido failed to take control and the opposition removed him last year.

The United States under President Joe Biden says it still does not recognise Maduro and has mostly maintained sanctions.

But the Biden administration approved an oil project in Venezuela last year by Chevron and has voiced a willingness to ease pressure further in return for progress.

Venezuela is due to hold presidential elections next year.

In this article

• China-Venezuela relations
• Nicolas Maduro

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Xi Meets With Russia’s Foreign Minister, Reaffirming Ties

The visit came days after the U.S. threatened new sanctions against Chinese companies if they aided Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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By David Pierson and Ivan Nechepurenko

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, met in Beijing on Tuesday, in a session seen as laying the groundwork for an expected visit to China by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and pushing back against mounting pressure from the United States and its allies.

Mr. Lavrov’s visit came just days after Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen warned of “significant consequences” if Chinese companies provided material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also took place as President Biden was set to host the leaders of Japan and the Philippines on Wednesday to boost economic and security ties to counter China’s growing assertiveness in Asia.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Lavrov met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and said the two sides had talked about deepening security ties to resist the West’s “anti-Chinese” and “anti-Russian orientation.” In a sign of the Kremlin’s continued deference to China, Mr. Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s rejection of any “outside interference” over Beijing’s claims to the de facto independent island of Taiwan.

“There is no place for dictatorships, hegemony, neocolonial and colonial practices, which are now being widely used by the United States and the rest of the ‘collective West,’” Mr. Lavrov said.

Mr. Wang’s remarks were more measured — a reflection of China’s difficult balancing act in supporting Russia while also trying to avoid alienating important trading partners in Western Europe.

China’s top diplomat did not mention the United States by name, a common practice by Chinese officials, and instead called for Russia and China to “oppose all hegemonic and bullying behaviors” and “oppose the Cold War mentality.”

Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022, days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. While China has cast itself as neutral, its tacit support for the war underscores how it still needs close ties with Russia to weaken the global dominance of its chief competitor, the United States.

Moscow, by aligning closely with Beijing, wants to demonstrate that it is not globally isolated despite its invasion of Ukraine. China provides Russia with diplomatic cover and an economic lifeline by purchasing Russian oil, gas and coal, and by selling Chinese consumer goods and technology to Russia.

Together, the two sides have tried to forge an alternative world order by marshaling support from the developing world through multilateral organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS , a group named for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that promotes economic and political ties.

Russia and China have also garnered support from countries such as Iran and North Korea which oppose the West and have a shared interest in weakening the power of U.S. sanctions and the role of human rights in global politics.

Mr. Putin is expected to visit China, perhaps as soon as next month. A date has yet to be confirmed, though the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Tuesday that Mr. Lavrov’s visit could be considered as “preparation for contacts at the highest level.”

David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about David Pierson

Ivan Nechepurenko covers Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the countries of the Caucasus, and Central Asia. He is based in Moscow. More about Ivan Nechepurenko

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, met in Beijing . The visit came days after the United States threatened new sanctions against Chinese companies if they aided Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has condemned recent drone strikes at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant , saying “such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident.”

Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 11 more in the latest assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city .

Conditional Support: Ukraine wants a formal invitation to join NATO, but the alliance has no appetite for taking on a new member  that would draw it into the biggest land war in Europe since 1945.

‘Shell Hunger’: A desperate shortage of munitions in Ukraine  is warping tactics and the types of weapons employed, and what few munitions remain are often mismatched with battlefield needs.

Turning to Marketing: Ukraine’s troop-starved brigades have started their own recruitment campaigns  to fill ranks depleted in the war with Russia.

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Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

Vietnam National Assembly chairman meets China's President Xi in Beijing

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Witnesses in Trump documents case can remain private, judge rules

A federal judge decided on Tuesday to allow the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents to shield the identities of possible witnesses in the case for now.

The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it had destroyed an inbound anti-ship ballistic missile over the Gulf of Aden that was launched by Iranian-backed Houthis and likely targeting the MV Yorktown.

Kremlin says visit by Venezuela's Maduro is in works

M OSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a visit by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Russia was being prepared, a sign of continued close ties between the two major oil-producing nations which are both at odds with the United States.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the visit was at "a high degree of preparation", and that all that remained was to agree a date.

Venezuela has in recent years maintained close relations with Russia, offering Moscow a degree of diplomatic support for its campaign in Ukraine.

Russia has supported Maduro's government amid an extended confrontation with the United States and prolonged domestic unrest.

(Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

U.S. and China in high-level talks to deport more Chinese nationals, Mayorkas says

The U.S. is conducting high-level discussions with China aimed at increasing the number of Chinese nationals deported from the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.

Such an agreement would be a breakthrough in U.S.-China relations and American immigration policy. China has long been uncooperative with U.S. efforts to deport Chinese citizens back to their country, according to American officials.

In the last two years, that has become especially consequential as the number of migrants from China illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has skyrocketed to the tens of thousands .

Mayorkas told NBC News that China’s refusal to accept deportations “may be changing.”

“We have been working with the People’s Republic of China to actually receive individuals whom we have determined are not eligible to remain in the United States,” Mayorkas said. He added that he raised the issue in February when he met in Vienna with his Chinese counterpart, Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong.

Mayorkas said he is “hopeful” that these discussions will lead to a change in the current situation. "We are in a wait and see posture but we are working with our counterparts," he said. "It's a process."

The talks come as the number of Chinese nationals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization has exploded. Customs and Border Protection logged over 24,000 such crossings in Fiscal Year 2023, up from just over 2,000 the prior year — a more than elevenfold increase. This is part of a larger surge in the number of migrants from all over the world making the dangerous journey to the U.S.’s southern border, which saw record-high illegal crossings in December. 

The meeting that included Mayorkas and Wang, his counterpart, took place in Vienna on Feb. 18. NBC News is reporting for the first time that these binational security talks included a potential agreement on deportations. 

The talks come amid a broader thaw in relations between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, after a Chinese spy balloon's flight over the U.S. sparked a diplomatic crisis. A historic in-person summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping took place in San Francisco in November, followed by a phone conversation Tuesday . 

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement provided to NBC News that China cooperates with efforts to repatriate illegal immigrants. “Illegal immigration is an international problem that needs the cooperation of relevant countries to solve it together,” Liu said. “China has had good cooperation with some countries on the issue of repatriating illegal immigrants, and is willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with relevant countries on this issue.”

Liu’s statement also said, “The Chinese government adheres to the principle of ‘verification first, then repatriation’ in repatriating illegal immigrants. We will accept repatriation of Chinese citizens who have been verified to be from mainland China.”

The U.S., though, has for years counted China among a list of “recalcitrant” or “non-cooperative” countries when it comes to deportations, a list that has at times included other geopolitical adversaries like Russia, Venezuela and Cuba. 

DHS cited China’s noncooperation in a 2021 report on “the threat posed by the people’s Republic of China,” writing that “Beijing’s refusal to cooperate forces ICE to release hundreds of PRC nationals, many with convictions for violent crimes, into American communities, jeopardizing public safety.”

In 2022, in retaliation for a visit by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan , a self-ruling island Beijing claims as its territory, China officially cut off cooperation on deportations, formalizing what had been de facto policy. That a new agreement on deportations is currently under discussion marks a stark change from recent years. 

Although the U.S. is able to deport some people to China every year, it has to resort to expensive and logistically challenging “Special High-Risk Charter” flights, sometimes via South Korea, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement records . 

The U.S. successfully deported eight Chinese citizens last week, according to a U.S. official who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity. 

ICE records indicate it deported 288 people to China last fiscal year; meanwhile, the number of Chinese nationals living in the U.S. with final orders of deportation is around 100,000, according to internal data obtained last year by The New York Times . 

An agreement allowing expanded, direct deportations to China would likely have a large impact on these numbers. However, such deportations would still be resource-intensive, and thus likely overwhelmed by the current number of arrivals. Most migrants apprehended at the southern border, whether from China or elsewhere, are released into the United States to await yearslong proceedings in severely backlogged immigration courts.

Mayorkas told NBC News that the recent, bipartisan Senate bill on immigration would have fixed those backlogs, but the measure was blocked by pro-Trump Republicans. Until Congress acts, he said, his department will be unable to meaningfully reduce migration from China or elsewhere.

“Fundamentally, our system is not equipped to deal with migration as it exists,” Mayorkas said. 

David Noriega is an NBC News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

Julia Ainsley is homeland security correspondent for NBC News and covers the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

World Brief: Nicaragua Accuses Germany of ‘Facilitating’ Genocide in Gaza

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Nicaragua Accuses Germany of ‘Facilitating’ Genocide in Gaza

Managua urges the international court of justice to order berlin to stop all weapons exports to israel..

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Israel-Hamas War

News, analysis, and background on the ongoing conflict .

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Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Nicaragua ’s genocide accusations against Germany , U.S. investments in Taiwanese chip manufacturing, and an attack on the Russian -occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

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‘serious risk of genocide’.

Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday to order Germany to stop all arms exports to Israel. Managua, which has past ties with Palestinian organizations, argued that Berlin violated the 1948 Genocide Convention by supplying Israel with military equipment and other aid despite the court ruling in January that it was plausible that Israel violated some aspects of the convention. Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms provider after Washington, with the former having sent $353.7 million in military equipment to Israel in 2023.

“There can be no question that Germany … was well aware, and is well aware, of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed” in Gaza, said Carlos José Argüello Gómez, Nicaragua’s representative at the ICJ.

The country is also asking the ICJ to urge Berlin to resume funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in addition to other aid that Germany is already providing. “It is indeed a pathetic excuse to the Palestinian children, women, and men in Gaza to provide humanitarian aid, including through airdrops, on the one hand, and to furnish the weapons and military equipment that are used to kill and annihilate them,” Nicaraguan lawyer Daniel Müller told the ICJ. Germany was one of many nations, including the United States, that suspended UNRWA funding after an Israeli investigation in January accused 12 of its employees of being involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Israel continues to deny all allegations of genocide, saying it has the right to defend itself. Germany also denies Nicaragua’s claims. “Germany does not, and never did, violate the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, neither directly nor indirectly,” said Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, a legal advisor for Germany’s foreign ministry.

Berlin is expected to present its argument on Tuesday. The ICJ has not yet accepted Nicaragua’s case but is required to respond quickly because Managua requested emergency measures. A preliminary decision will likely take weeks to deliver, and the case, if accepted, could last for years.

This is the third ICJ case this year related to the Israel-Hamas war. In January, South Africa accused Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during its assault on Gaza. The court ruled that such allegations were plausible and ordered Israel to take immediate emergency measures to halt potential acts of genocide. South Africa also petitioned the ICJ to address Gaza’s ongoing hunger crisis ; the court ordered Israel to permit the delivery of basic food and water supplies “without delay.” In February, the ICJ accepted a long-planned case by the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the legality of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Nicaragua’s case is broader than South Africa’s. It invokes the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Convention, accuses Israel of other “unlawful” conduct in Gaza, and orders Israel to protect civilians. It also raises new questions about the liability of other countries that have supplied weapons to Israel. The U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Friday calling for nations to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel. Six nations voted against the measure, including the United States and Germany. Whereas Germany recognizes the ICJ’s jurisdiction, however, the United States does not.

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The World This Week

Tuesday, April 9: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov concludes a two-day visit to China.

Sweden begins a two-day meeting with its Nordic and Baltic counterparts on foreign and security policy.

Ireland’s parliament votes to confirm new Fine Gael party leader Simon Harris as Taoiseach.

Wednesday, April 10: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hosts Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Brussels.

South Korea holds parliamentary elections.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal begins a three-day visit to Canada.

Thursday, April 11: The European Central Bank determines its interest rate.

G-7 transportation ministers begin a three-day meeting in Milan, Italy.

U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Friday, April 12: South Korea’s central bank determines its interest rate.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

Monday, April 15: The International Court of Justice holds hearings on preliminary objections in Armenia’s case against Azerbaijan.

What We’re Following

TSMC clinches U.S. funding. The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Monday that it will give Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) a $6.6 billion subsidy for advanced chip production in Phoenix, Arizona. TSMC is the world’s largest chipmaker. Washington said it would also grant TSMC up to $5 billion in government loans as part of the company’s plan to build a third fabrication plant in Arizona by 2030 and increase company funding toward the U.S. facilities by $25 billion. The plan—totaling more than $65 billion—is the largest foreign direct investment in a new project in U.S. history.

At the same time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen concluded four days of top-level meetings in China on Monday. Yellen urged China on Saturday to rein in excessive green energy technology exports, warning that Washington would not allow a repeat of “ China shock ,” when a wave of Chinese imports in the early 2000s decimated around 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs. China rebuffed Washington’s concerns, arguing that tariffs would deprive consumers of green alternatives key to achieving climate goals. Yellen did not announce new curbs on trade should Beijing continue supporting electric vehicles and other green products.

Infrastructure targets. Russian forces launched 24 Iranian-produced Shahed drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Monday. Officials said the assault hit critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr Oblast and damaged a logistics and transportation facility in the south. No casualties were reported, and Ukrainian troops said they intercepted 17 of the two dozen drones across the Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Khmelnytskyi, and Zhytomyr regions.

Meanwhile, Moscow accused Kyiv on Sunday of targeting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant three times and announced a criminal investigation. Ukraine denied responsibility. “No one can conceivably benefit or get any military or political advantage from attacks against nuclear facilities. This is a no go,” said Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Three plant employees were reportedly injured, and one drone hit a building housing one of the facility’s six reactors.

This is the first time that the plant has been targeted since November 2022, officials said. Russia took control of the nuclear facility following its February 2022 invasion, and Ukraine has accused Moscow of turning the plant into a military base, knowing that Kyiv would be reluctant to target it.

Mexico-Ecuador tiff. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States convened an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the deteriorating relationship between Mexico and Ecuador. Mexico cut diplomatic ties with Ecuador on Saturday after Ecuadorian officials raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito late Friday to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who was seeking political asylum there.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the incident “a flagrant violation of international law and of Mexico’s sovereignty.” Ecuador’s presidential office, however, argued that “no criminal can be considered a politically persecuted person.” Glas was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison on corruption charges and sought shelter with Mexico’s embassy last December.

Nicaragua severed relations with Ecuador hours after Mexico’s announcement, calling the raid “unusual and reprehensible.” Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, and Venezuela also condemned Ecuador’s actions.

Odds and Ends

Chechens must say goodbye to Lady Gaga’s megahit “Just Dance” and Pirates of the Caribbean ’s epic theme “He’s a Pirate,” among other fan favorites. The Russian republic banned all music that is slower than 80 beats per minute or faster than 116 beats per minute last Friday to target Western pop and techno songs. The directive will ensure that all music now aligns with Chechnya’s “mentality and musical rhythm,” regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov said.

Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy. Twitter:  @AlexandraSSharp

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