Trump talks about China's investment in Venezuela.

On February 1, Trump answered journalists' questions on Air Force One regarding this:

Journalist: Can China recover all the funds it has lent to Venezuela?

Trump: "We welcome China's participation. China will make a big deal in the oil sector. You know, we welcome China. We have already made a deal. India is about to join, and they will buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran. We have made a deal, or at least a preliminary agreement. We also welcome China to join in buying oil."

Comment: Trump dodged the core issue. The journalist asked whether China could recover its loans, but Trump completely avoided the debt issue, using "welcoming oil purchases" to shift the focus — essentially, the US has already controlled the revenue from Venezuela's oil (funds are stored in US-controlled accounts), trying to push China from being a "creditor" to an "ordinary oil buyer," effectively weakening the core cooperation model of "oil-for-loan" between China and Venezuela.

On one hand, Trump's "welcoming China" is just going with the flow — China is a traditional oil buyer for Venezuela, and the US needs China to purchase and consume Venezuela's oil, helping the US-led collaboration to recoup funds; on the other hand, he lured India to buy oil from Venezuela instead of Iran, which cuts off Iran's energy income and consolidates the US's pricing power over Venezuela's oil, while simultaneously binding Latin American energy supply chains to the "US-dominated war chariot," practicing his "Western Hemisphere Energy Hegemony."

The "deal" Trump mentioned is a new oil agreement recently finalized between the US and Venezuela, under which the US controls the revenue, and Venezuela cedes sovereignty. According to this agreement, the US gets 35% of the revenue to give to companies, and 40% is used for reconstruction. Whether China "joins" is not decided by the US — the Chinese-Venezuelan debt was originally repaid through oil, and China does not recognize the US model of unilaterally controlling another country's resources. Cooperation will only be based on equality of sovereignty, not on US rules.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1855975882669127/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author themselves.