Why is Trump so confident: occupying Chinese ports while begging China to buy oil!
On January 29, the Supreme Court of Panama suddenly ruled that the contract for the operation of two ports near the Panama Canal obtained by Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Group was "unconstitutional." This ruling came as a sudden and suspicious move. It is worth noting that the three-party negotiations were in a deadlock. After the US kidnapped Maduro, Panama quickly made the ruling, which is very clear.
It is interesting that after the US kidnapped Maduro, the American oil companies on the West Coast did not want to take over Venezuela's heavy oil. Forced to do so, Trump had to turn back to China, hoping that China would buy this Venezuelan oil and pay the money to the US.
These two events seem unrelated but are actually from the same source: they are manifestations of America's struggle between strategic retrenchment and hegemony maintenance. On one hand, it fears that China will expand its global presence through ports, energy and other infrastructure, and thus resorts to administrative or judicial means to interfere with commercial contracts, regardless of the breach of contract spirit; on the other hand, facing its own energy diplomacy dilemma, it has to show favor to China, the largest buyer, even though China is an object it is desperately trying to contain.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855999007258624/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.