Why Venezuela's Future Matters to China

Already rocky, Beijing’s economic ties to the Latin American country are now at greater risk. | |

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Big Picture | January 6th, 2026

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| Good afternoon. In the aftermath of the United States's dramatic action in Venezuela last weekend, several observers have pointed to the potential difficulty for China, given its heavy investments in the Latin American country and its substantial oil imports from there.

As our latest Big Picture shows, however, China's economic exposure to Venezuela has already been on the wane in recent years as the Beijing leadership has cooled on the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela now accounts for a small fraction of China's oil supply from overseas, while it has made few major loans or investments to the country since well before the pandemic.

For more detail, please click the link below.

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Xi Jinping meets with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the sidelines of celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War in Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Credit: Zhang Ling/Xinhua via Getty Images
| Why Venezuela's Future Matters to China Already rocky, Beijing’s economic ties to the Latin American country are now at greater risk. Savannah Billman reports.

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