Venezuela’s diplomatic links with China began in 1936 when a General Consulate was established in Shanghai, and, afterwards, an Extraordinary Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary of China was appointed in Caracas in August 1941. Li Dijun, a diplomatic official appointed by China, presented his Letters of Credence to President Isaías Medina Angarita on April 1943 and the Legation of China was installed in the Venezuelan capital. In the following decades, Venezuelan relations with China were influenced by the rise to power of the communist movement led by Mao TseTung. Like most Latin American countries, Venezuela recognized the Chinese government in Taiwan, a situation that was modified in 1974,when the government in Beijing was finally recognized (see Molina Medina, 2015). Between 1974 and 1999, the relations between China and Venezuela took a low profile.

A new period began with victory of Hugo Chávez in the 1998 elections. Bilateral relations were modest in 1999: China and Venezuela had signed just 19 agreements up to that year, but from 1999 onward, more than 400 agreements have been signed, of which about 200 are fully operational. Hence, the “Chávez era” has been a new period in which unprecedented levels of political and economic cooperation have been achieved. Chávez’ aspirations for global and regional leadership and the increasing involvement of China in the Global South in general, and in Latin America in particular, are crucial factors in understanding the recent period of Chinese–Venezuelan relations.

This chapter evaluates the period of Chinese–Venezuelan relations that began with the rise to power of Chávez in 1999, and is divided into three sections. The first section describes and evaluates the diverse agreements and political and economic actions that China and Venezuela have furthered in the last few years. The second section examines the results of the diverse bilateral initiatives between China and Venezuela. Finally, the logic behind the Chinese–Venezuelan rapprochement is explained in the last section of the chapter.

Fuente: José Briceño Ruíz y Norbert Molina Medina: “China-Venezuela Relations in a Context of Change”, en Raúl Bernal Meza y Li Xing (Edit.): China – Latin America Relations in the 21st Century. The Dual Complexities of Opportunities and Challenges. International Political Economy Series. Cham – Suiza, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 147-168.