China is likely to thread the needle after US attack on Venezuela

China will be patient and play the long game as it views the new geopolitical chessboard, recalibrating carefully in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s move on Saturday to decapitate Venezuela’s leadership, analysts said.

in a daring predawn raid, US forces descended on ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and airlifted him shackled and blindfolded to New York to face charges of “narcoterrorism conspiracy” and illegal weapons trafficking.

“China is likely to thread this needle effectively. Beijing will condemn US actions,” said Bonnie Glaser, vice-president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “But I doubt that China will do much more than that. Venezuela isn’t among China’s core interests, and there is more downside than upside to taking actions that would complicate Trump’s ability to achieve a win.”

In part, this wait-and-see strategy is wise, analysts said, especially given how much uncertainty and contradictory developments are coming out of Venezuela. These include questions over the country’s future leadership, what form of government will follow, how much Washington will be involved in governance and how big a role the nation’s long-suffering opposition will have.

Pro-government, armed civilians at a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday. Photo: AP

Trump provided something of a blueprint for his view of the region when he released his National Security Strategy last month that espoused an aggressive “Trump corollary” to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which two centuries ago warned foreign nations to stay out of the western hemisphere.

South China Morning Post