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Just hours before his capture by the U.S., Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro met with a Chinese envoy, highlighting the great power competition between Washington and Beijing in the Western Hemisphere.
Maduro received Qiu Xiaoqi, the Chinese government’s special representative for Latin American affairs, at the Miraflores Presidential Palace on Friday — reaffirming Caracas’ strategic ties with Beijing and pledging to build what he called a “multipolar world of development and peace.
Coincidentally, Trump met with US Ambassador to China David Perdue on Friday evening.
Hours later, President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had struck targets across Venezuela and taken Maduro and his wife into custody, flying them out of the country as part of a dramatic escalation of pressure on the embattled leader.
Asked on ‘Fox and Friends’ about the Chinese meeting before Maduro’s capture, Trump said Saturday morning: “I have a very good relationship with Xi, and there’s not going to be a problem. They’re going to get oil.”
The U.S. operation appears to mark the most direct U.S. military action against a sitting head of state in Latin America since Panama in 1989, with Trump’s administration framing the capture as the culmination of months of allegations that Maduro trafficked drugs into the United States and ruled illegitimately.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro received a Chinese government representative, Qiu Xiaoqi, at the presidential palace in Caracas on Friday, hours before Maduro was captured by the U.S. (Anadolu Agency via Reuters)
China, meanwhile, said it was “deeply shocked” by the U.S. action.
“China is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the U.S.’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and its action against its president,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
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“Such hegemonic behavior by the U.S. seriously violates international law, infringes upon Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean. China firmly opposes it,” it added.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro on Sept 18, 2016. (Copyright 2016. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
China has provided billions of dollars in financing and energy investment to expand its influence throughout Latin America through its Belt and Road Initiative and is Caracas’ largest crude oil importer.
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The Trump administration has openly rejected that trajectory. Senior officials have said the U.S. intends to reassert the Monroe Doctrine, a long-standing policy opposing foreign powers establishing strategic footholds in the Americas, particularly authoritarian rivals such as China.
Venezuela has been a focal point of that competition. U.S. officials have accused Beijing, along with Russia and Iran, of propping up Maduro’s government as it faced international isolation, economic collapse and widespread allegations of corruption and narcotrafficking.
