Despite his gushing compliments this week, Beijing has been careful to keep Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a distance as it tries not to jeopardize its relations with Washington, analysts say.
On Thursday evening at the end of a 48-hour visit to Beijing, Latin America’s leftwing leader-in-chief was at pains to underline the strong links between his oil-producing country and the world’s third-largest economy.
“Relations between China and Venezuela are strengthening,” Chavez said.
“We have established committees to continue this work, to increase Chinese investment in Venezuela,” above and beyond US$12 billion, said Chavez, who 24 hours earlier declared that “the world’s center of gravity had shifted to Beijing.”
OIL
Since Chavez came to power a decade ago, relations between Venezuela and China have been predicated on oil, professor Gonzalo Paz of George Washington University in the US said.
“It is now a more comprehensive relationship, involving telecommunications, satellites, the construction of railways and the development of agricultural irrigation systems, but still at the heart of it lies oil,” he said.
As a growing superpower, China needs to secure more oil for its burgeoning economy from more diverse places, and Venezuela needs to ween itself off dependence on the US market.
It is here that the interests of the two countries intersect. Added to that, both share a desire to see a multi, rather than unipolar world order.
But experts say Beijing is wary of pushing this too far for fear that could endanger its relations with Washington.
“China as an emerging power plays it both ways ... nice-nice with [US President Barack] Obama and then nice-nice with South [America]. Great position to occupy,” said Riordan Roett, a Latin America specialist at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University.
“Beijing knows it is the next superpower. Why bother with Hugo Chavez? Because he is there and it keeps Washington on edge a little bit without real policy implications,” he said.
For Roett, the changed political landscape in the US may go some way to explaining China’s reluctance to get too close to Chavez.
NEW CHAPTER
“Beijing, especially after the Obama election, realizes a new chapter is probably opening in US-China relations. Why jeopardize it with more powerful relations with Hugo Chavez?” he said.
China knows it has to be careful not to do the same as the Russians when they carried out joint naval exercises last year with Venezuela in the Caribbean — traditionally considered the US’ backyard.
“President Chavez would like a more strategic relationship with China,” Paz said. “But Venezuelan hopes are always higher than those of China.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese