For China, Maduro is Venezuela’s legitimate president. When he declared himself re-elected in 2024 after an election widely condemned as neither free nor fair, Beijing responded by insisting that “the people’s choice must be respected.” President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message promising that China would “as always firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, dignity, and social stability, as well as its just cause against external interference.” In a single stroke, dictatorship was rebranded as democracy, and a regime that has driven its own people into exile was given international legitimacy.
Behind these ceremonial words lie hard interests. Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and for two decades Chinese banks and oil companies have treated the country as both an energy source and a geopolitical card. Between 2007 and 2016, China loaned Venezuela more than 60 billion dollars, secured by future oil shipments. When oil production collapsed and the loans went into default, Chinese banks were forced to restructure the debt. Yet trade continued. Today, Chinese firms buy Venezuelan oil through intermediaries and at steep discounts. These revenues remain one of Maduro’s few financial lifelines.
According to Reuters, China imports a significant—and increasing—amount of oil from Venezuela. In June 2025, about 90 % of Venezuela’s oil exports (directly and via transshipment hubs) were destined for China.
For the Venezuelan people, the consequences are devastating. According to the UN, nearly 7.9 million citizens are now refugees or migrants abroad—around a quarter of the population. Most have gone to neighboring countries like Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. Colombia alone hosts about three million Venezuelans. Others have braved the deadly journey through Panama’s Darien Gap on their way north toward the United States. “We left because we had no choice,” a father told me in Costa Rica. “Behind us was hunger. Ahead lay perhaps death. But we had to try.”
Those who flee are escaping a nation in ruins. Hyperinflation has wiped out savings and salaries. Hospitals lack even basic medicines, and children die from treatable diseases. Violence and crime are rampant, while the regime crushes protests with brutal force. Demonstrators are jailed, opposition figures persecuted, and the courts serve as obedient instruments of the president.
It is in this darkness that María Corina Machado has stood out. Year after year she has embodied courage, refusing to be silenced even after being barred from running for office and subjected to threats. “History will judge those who support the oppressors,” she said recently. The words were aimed not only at Maduro himself but also at the foreign governments that shield him.
The Nobel Peace Prize casts this reality into sharp relief. It reminds the world that Venezuela’s tragedy is not simply the result of mismanagement or corruption, but of a regime that actively represses its people—and of great powers that enable it. China always speaks of the principle of “non-interference,” yet by purchasing oil, restructuring debt, and providing surveillance technology, Beijing intervenes in the most consequential way: by keeping a dictatorship alive.
Chinese companies have delivered monitoring systems now used by Venezuelan intelligence to track and control the population. Technology that could have fostered modernization has instead become a weapon against the opposition. Thus China contributes not only to the regime’s economic survival, but also to its capacity for repression.
For Beijing, this is also about geopolitics. By supporting Maduro, China demonstrates that the United States no longer has a monopoly in Latin America. Venezuela becomes a piece on the chessboard in China’s larger strategy of gaining influence in regions traditionally dominated by Washington. When the West condemns Maduro, Beijing responds with congratulations and promises of partnership. For ordinary Venezuelans, it simply means another year under dictatorship.
Today China is more cautious about new investments; its banks have already lost billions, and Venezuela is no longer a reliable partner. But the political bond remains. Whenever Maduro travels to Beijing, he is greeted with honors. Whenever the opposition pleads for international support, Chinese diplomats repeat the familiar phrase that “the crisis must be resolved within Venezuela’s constitutional framework.” In practice, that means nothing should change.
The Nobel Peace Prize for María Corina Machado tells another story. It is the story of a woman who refused to fall silent. It is the story of millions of refugees who still dream of going home. And it highlights the hypocrisy of great powers that speak of peace and stability while propping up a regime that drives its people into exile.
faeroevi@online.no
