US blows up China’s Latin America ambitions with Maduro Ouster

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The U.S. ouster of the Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro is forcing Beijing into a high-stakes recalculation of its ambitions in a region that looks like America’s backyard again, said people close to internal discussions in the Chinese leadership.

For years, China made inroads into Latin America, coaxing countries to abandon support for Taiwan with loans to build roads, ports and rail lines, making significant purchases of commodities such as soybeans and oil, and mining metals such as copper. Maduro was its most important ally, an anti-American leader with oil resources, earning Venezuela the rare distinction of an “all-weather" partnership—China’s highest diplomatic honor and a status held by no other country in Latin America. Now, Beijing is no longer seeking to make new advances into Latin America in the near term, the people said.

Instead, the discourse in China’s policymaking circles has shifted toward a potential trade-off: If the Western Hemisphere belongs to the Americans, then the Taiwan Strait belongs to the Chinese. This calculation doesn’t mean China views the U.S. action in Venezuela as a green light for an immediate action to take back Taiwan, a democratically ruled island that Beijing views as a breakaway province.

Rather, U.S. action against Maduro by force bolsters China as it gives priority to its “core interests," chiefly, bringing Taiwan under its control. Chinese leaders had already been watching its influence in Latin America wane since President Trump took office a year ago.