China–Venezuela relations are the international relations between the People's Republic of China and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Formal diplomatic relations between both countries were established in August 1944 and switched recognition to the PRC in 1974. Before 1999 only one sitting president, Luis Herrera Campins, had visited China. Cooperation began growing significantly during the Presidency of Hugo Chávez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the tenure of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao as the leader of the People's Republic of China. In 2016, China-Venezuelan trade amounted to $7.42 billion, with $4.9 billion coming from Venezuelan exports and $2.52 billion coming from Chinese exports.
History
Early years (1944–1999)
Formal diplomatic relations between the Chinese and Venezuelan governments were established in August 1944, with offices opened in Caracas and Nanking, the capital of the Republic of China. After the Communists taking power in 1949, the Venezuelan office was transplanted from Nanking to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. In 1966, the office was upgraded into an embassy.
In 1974, Venezuela ended recognition of the ROC and switched to recognizing the People's Republic of China instead. Before 1999, only one sitting Venezuelan president had visited the PRC: Luis Herrera Campins, in 1981. As a result, up until 1999 there had only been 19 formal agreements between China and Venezuela, and only two of these would be ratified by both sides.
Chávez administration (1999-2013)
The nature of China-Venezuelan relations completely changed once Hugo Chávez won the 1998 Venezuelan Presidential elections.
From the outset of his presidency, Hugo Chávez sought to distance himself from the United States and court other allies that could help him find alternative sources of trade, diplomatic and military relations. During the first year of his presidency, he visited China and would accumulate the greatest number of visits to China out of any other Latin-American leader during the same period (1999-2012). While giving a speech at Beijing University, Chávez is reported to have stated that “the Bolivarian Revolution is rooted in the ideology of Communist China's founder, Mao Zedong”. During that same visit, Chávez also proclaimed that Simon Bolivar was a “soul mate of Mao Zedong”.
While China-Venezuelan relations were not strong at the time of Hugo Chávez's 1999 election, by his third term in 2012 the alliance between these socialist regimes were stronger than ever before. In terms of their diplomatic ties, Venezuela became a supporter of China on issues relating to Iran and North Korea; and they also publicly supported the creation of an international currency, which is a position that China favored.
Chavez has been called a 'strong and vibrant leader' and 'good friend of the Chinese people.'
Maduro administration (2013-present) In March 2013 Hugo Chávez died. In April, a special presidential election was held, and Chávez's vice president, Nicolás Maduro won.
In 2017, the Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela removed power from the elected National Assembly, resulting in a constitutional crisis and protests that year. Maduro called for a rewrite of the constitution, and the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela was elected in 2017, under what many—including Venezuela's chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega and Smartmatic, the company that ran the voting machines—considered irregular voting conditions; the majority of its members were pro-Maduro. On 20 May 2018, presidential elections were called prematurely; opposition leaders had been jailed, exiled or forbidden to run, there was no international observation, and tactics were used to suggest voters could lose their jobs or social welfare if they did not vote for Maduro. While the majority of nations in the Western world did not recognize the Constituent Assembly election or the validity of Maduro's 2018 reelection, and the Canadian, Panamanian, and the United States governments sanctioned Maduro, China, Russia and other allies recognized the elections and congratulated Maduro for winning.
In January 2019, the opposition-majority National Assembly declared that Maduro's re-election was invalid and declared its president, Juan Guaidó, to be acting president of the Venezuela. The US, Canada, and most of Western Europe and Latin America (including Brazil, Colombia, Argentina) recognized Guaidó as interim president.