Amid China’s various threats to the United States, a new one has emerged: The Asian country is undermining U.S. foreign policy on Latin America by purchasing oil from Venezuela, a clear violation of U.S. sanctions. China’s misbehavior compromises U.S. efforts to make a democratic transition in Venezuela. The point of the U.S. sanctions is to apply “maximum pressure” to the Maduro regime and its elite so that the ruling coalition is forced to negotiate a political transition in Venezuela. But if Beijing keeps purchasing oil from Venezuela, the sanctions will not fulfill their objective.
In February, China bought three-quarters of all Venezuelan oil exports. As a result, Venezuela’s oil export increased to 700,000 barrels per day in February, its highest level in a year, doubling its exports from June 2020. This is all according to internal documents of the Venezuelan state-owned oil industry PDVSA, and new tracking data made available by the London financial-data provider Refinitiv Eikon.
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