Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing cannot accept any country acting as the “world’s judge” after the United States captured Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

The world’s second-largest economy has provided Venezuela with an economic lifeline since the U.S. and its allies ramped up sanctions in 2017, purchasing roughly $1.6 billion worth of goods in 2024, the most recent full-year data available.

Almost half of China’s purchases were crude oil, customs data shows, while its state-owned oil giants had invested around $4.6 billion in Venezuela by 2018, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank, which tracks Chinese overseas corporate investment.

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    For anyone that thinks otherwise I guarantee this opens the door for China to begin their assault on Taiwan.

    • 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚎𝚘𝚠@programming.dev
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      2 months ago

      I’m not so sure it does. China is openly arguing against Trumps logic here, and the US just did demonstrate their military is still highly effective. The US seventh fleet hasn’t moved away from Taiwan, and Trump is clearly signalling he intends to keep China down.

      I’d argue Xi is not happy Trump decided to actually do something like this, because it increased the risk of his plans with Taiwan as well now that the US is openly hostile and MAGA cheers it on.

      China needed him to keep up the whole peace pretense and for MAGA to stay on board with that. Now that that’s gone, Trump has cleared the way for more military intervention.

      • prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        From China’s perspective (and in theory, Taiwan’s perspective), invading Taiwan isn’t the same, because they both officially recognize One China, they just disagree about who’s in charge.

        It would more akin to USA invading Puerto Rico, if the governor of PR asserted that they were in fact the proper leaders of the USA.

      • Jhex@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        and the US just did demonstrate their military is still highly effective

        hmmmm sucker punching Venezuela here is not the flex you seem to think it is

        the USA loves to bat weaker military powers around but they have been shown to be crushed by peasants in the long run…

        • In a matter of hours the US kidnapped the president of Venezuela, from his house on an army base, taking zero casualties. I don’t think there’s many militaries around that can beat that. It’s not the same as capturing Putin or Xi, sure, but it’s no trifle either.

            • 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚎𝚘𝚠@programming.dev
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              2 months ago

              How many other heads of state do you remember being kidnapped from their palace, like from anywhere?

              Of course Venezuela is no China or Russia and doesn’t compare to the US military, but they did have fairly modern Russian-made AA installations, all of which were successfully disabled or destroyed. And again: zero casualties.

              You expect the operation would be successful, sure. But not as perfectly executed as it was.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      China claims Taiwan is theirs. Invading their own country to free it doesn’t really need any extra motive (even if there is) like what Trump needed, and is not playing world police.

    • Knightfox@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      100% agree, also China’s outrage is in name only. They provided 1.6 Billion in relief in the form of buying oil lol.

      • Jhex@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        China is an authoritarian dictatorship that tramples human rights and treats its citizens like resources and speed-bumps and treats “free speech” as the joke it actually is.

        if you switched “China” to “The USA” in this sentence, I would have to find details to see if the scale is different but both do exactly the same

          • Jhex@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I agree… but my point here is that it does not matter it was China who said “x”, in this instance “x” is right and people are dismissing it because “cHiNA” but the reality is that every country, powerful enough, acts pretty much the same so I am attempting to split the source from the message

      • Darkness343@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        So what if they do a little authoritarianism? They are attempting to make goddamn fusions reactors, for fucks sake

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Three what now? Do you mean three modules for one station? Or three consecutive stations, one testing technology for the next? E.g. a short time station, e.g. a crew vehicle? I am only aware of one station, Tiangong. Do I have to do another web search? :(

          • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago
            1. I don’t think monster is an appropriate word for a space station.
            2. so yeah, Tiangong-1 & -2 were single vehicle modules for technology evaluation. Similar to Skylab in concept (single launch, test docking technologies & crewed missions)
            3. as impressive as the Chinese space program is, the ISS is substantially bigger. Sadly, the world has not gotten their shit together in time for a follow-up station, and Gateway is pretty much dead-at-conception.
              • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                No argument there. China definitely has the better and more advanced space program. The ISS might get extended again if it doesn’t break and once people realize there is nothing comparable ready by 2030/31, but yes, eventually, there will be no international nor western space station in orbit for the foreseeable future.

  • MithranArkanere@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It would appear that the US got tired of all the jokes comparing them to the movie Idiocracy, so they decided to make themselves into Team America: World Police instead.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In any case, Mainland China still wants to supplant the US as a world power, so any failings of the Americans will be advantageous to Chinese regardless of its own domestic issues, as it does business with mostly countries rejected by the Americans as “enemy states” and undeserving of its support.

    edit: To that particular someone who says to the contrary believing Americans remain strong, the Mainlanders still have their presence known in my country, especially as far as trade is concerned; walk into any street market and Mainland goods are cheap and present in huge volumes, and to boycott their goods will be next to impossible, having completely captured my country’s market.

    • bunchberry@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      China obviously doesn’t give af about supplanting the US as a world power. If they did they would actually do stuff internationally. There is no Chinese equivalent to NATO. All they will do in regards to Venezuelan president being kidnapped is strongly condemn it. They won’t even offer PSUV any security guarantees. Literally all the Chinese government believes in is (1) trading with as many people as possible and (2) reuniting its breakaway territories. They have no ambitions beyond that. It is not true that China does business mostly with countries rejected by the Americans, but it does business with literally everyone. Chinese love to trade with everyone. While Americans media constantly criticizes China on every calling for regime change attacking their political system their leaders etc, the only time you ever hear criticism of the US on Chinese media is when the US does something that is viewed as harming trade, like the tariffs.

        • bunchberry@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Multipolarity bros really need to stop fantasizing about BRICS being some sort of anti-imperialist military alliance It’s just delusion, BRICS isn’t a military bloc, it is about trade. It technically isn’t even a trading bloc either as it is literally just a forum to discuss trade relations. If you think any member of BRICS has defense obligations to one another then you are incredibly disconnected from reality.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      While I agree you always need to look at who is saying what and what their motivations are, China has been investing in Venezuela, just as they have in many other countries.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The largest outside investment in Venezuela has come from California based multinationals. China’s a very recent entrant into the Venezuelan market, owing in large part to the rising tide of US sanctions that prevents western businesses from doing the kind of trade they were already enthusiastic about.

        Incidentally, the American Enterprise Institute operates as a lobbyist on behalf of many of those California businesses.

        • stickly@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Nobody is crying wolf here, this is just a statement of imports and exports based on publicly available data giving context to China’s interests in the region. Is admitting that China works for their own geopolitical interests too much for you? We’re now down to dismissing public customs and OPEC data because engaging in foreign economic interests is a little too close to American imperialism for comfort?

  • Inucune@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    We agree, so let’s discuss the Chinese police stations in countries that are clearly not China.

  • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Unless it’s China whose the judge, of course. They seem to find no issue judging the Uygurs as needing to die and Taiwan as their property, or the the South China Sea as their waters, or all the fish in the world as theirs to make extinct.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They seem to find no issue judging the Uygurs as needing to die

      Are they killing Uyghurs by the millions or teaching them Mandarin?

      So much of the hysteria around China seems to stem from domestic campaigns of infrastructure development. The Three Gourges Dam, the rapid expansion of urban infrastructure, development of schools and hospitals in the historically rural corners of the country, expansion of universities, trade with East Africa, the BRI - all described as brutal forms of colonial oppression by a savage and sadistic Far-Left Totalitarian Communist government.

      Nobody described Bolsonaro’s Brazil in these terms, as his administration clear cut the Amazon and rapidly displaced tens of thousands of migrants. Nobody described The Phillipines or Indonesia this way, even as Red Tagging was used as an excuse for vigilante executions and toxic dumping sent cancer rates stratospheric. Hell, its hard enough to get Israel described in these terms in any major western publication of record, and they’re outright shooting children in the head before labeling them “Hamas Terrorists”.

      Why are liberals so eager to re-characterize literacy programs as a form of holocaust? Why do they seem so gleeful at the prospect of a China-Taiwan hot war? Why do we have a President threatening to invade Venezuela, Nigeria, and Greenland all at once, while his biggest “critics” complain that he’s not bellicose enough?

      Fucking wild times.

    • optissima@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Translation: An insane man has most of the nukes in the world and is ignoring international law.

    • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Oh, not just them. The fascists want to invade all North America and South America. We could very depressingly actually find ourselves on opposite sides of an armed conflict sometime soon. I mean, I’m a disabled trans woman and I am somewhat doubtful that anyone will be depending on me to shoot a gun, but you know. Maybe more like we could find ourselves being shot at by each country’s respective combat drones.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Lmao literally while supporting Russia for doing the exact same thing but like a billion times worse.

  • CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Okay, I’m sure this is the last straw, right? And you’ll stop funding Russia right?