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  • Violence erupts in Venezuela

  • And China will have to choose

  • Maduro or Guaidó?

  • Welcome back to China Uncensored.

  • I'm Chris Chappell.

  • Venezuela is in chaos.

  • Again.

  • Protesters and military clashed on Wednesday,

  • as armored vehicles drove into crowds of unarmed civilians.

  • Tens of thousands took to the streets,

  • following a call from opposition leader Juan Guaidó

  • to overthrow the ruling Maduro regime.

  • The call is for everyone to come out

  • into the streets at this moment

  • to give backing to what we have built over years.”

  • But Nicolás Maduro is not backing down.

  • And that's become a big problem

  • for the Chinese Communist Party.

  • The Chinese regime has some tough decisions to make

  • when it comes to Venezuela.

  • First, to intervene or not to intervene?

  • The Chinese Communist Party has always criticized the US

  • for getting involved in other countries' internal affairs.

  • At a meeting in Beijing over the weekend,

  • Xi Jinping expressed that it's “totally unacceptable

  • when anyone tries to topple authorities in a third country,

  • attempting to use force and illegal international pressure

  • against a sovereign state,

  • in order to change the leadership there.”

  • And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

  • has said the US would potentially intervene in Venezuela.

  • Did the United States back this push by Juan Guaidó

  • or give any assurances to Guaidó

  • that the US would support him?”

  • Oh we've made clear assurances Wolf all along

  • that we'll support Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly.

  • They're the duly elected leaders of the Venezuelan government,

  • so yes we've provided strong assurances to them.”

  • Uh oh.

  • That's not what the Chinese regime wants!

  • They've invested tens of billions of dollars into Venezuela

  • under the Nicolás Maduro regime.

  • They supplied Venezuelan police

  • with a lot of their equipment.

  • And during this meeting last September,

  • Xi Jinping promised Maduro to

  • provide whatever help it can offer.”

  • Part of that help included a 5 billion dollar credit line.

  • China has also sent delegations to Venezuela

  • as a show of support for Maduro.

  • Which is why Pompeo has recently said,

  • China and others are being hypocritical

  • in calling for 'non-intervention' in Venezuela's affairs.

  • Their own financial interventions

  • have helped destroy the country.”

  • Basically, he's saying China has no problem

  • with countries intervening in

  • the internal affairs of other countries.

  • As long as the country doing the intervening is China.

  • Or Russia.

  • Or just not the United States.

  • But that leaves another tough decision

  • for the Chinese Communist Party.

  • What's the best way to intervene in Venezuela?

  • Will it continue to throw its weight behind Maduro

  • and hope he can keep his grip on power?

  • Or should it back Guaidó?

  • Again, there's tens of billions of dollars

  • of investment on the line.

  • If China backs Maduro,

  • but he gets ousted,

  • Guaidó might think twice about all that Chinese investment.

  • On the other hand, if China backs Guaidó,

  • and Maduro does manage to stay in power,

  • that's pretty embarrassing.

  • How do you explain that at your next friendship meeting?

  • Everyone knows you can only have one best friend.

  • And Guaidó is definitely making his case

  • to the Chinese regime

  • that he can be their new bestie.

  • He penned a letter,

  • appealing to the better nature of Communist Party officials.

  • He wrote that

  • At least 87 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty,

  • subject to 90 per cent shortages in food and medical supplies.

  • Basic services such as electricity and water have collapsed.

  • The inflation rate exceeded 2.6 million percent in January 2019

  • and threatens to reach 10 million percent

  • by the end of this year.”

  • But just in case Communist Party officials

  • don't feel enough empathy for the people of Venezuela,

  • Guaidó also added another incentive.

  • China is the world's largest oil importer

  • and Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

  • For those two reasons alone,

  • the economic relationship between our nations

  • will inevitably grow.”

  • That's better.

  • But for now, it seems like the Venezuelan military

  • is still backing Maduro.

  • And there's always a chance Guaidó

  • could end up being detained or even disappearing.

  • Of course, if that happens,

  • the US has said military options are on the table.

  • Or at least not off the table.

  • “I don't think anyone should be fooled,

  • that if the president makes that decision,

  • if he chooses a military option,

  • that the United States military has the capacity

  • to execute that option in a way

  • that will achieve the outcome the president intends.”

  • Which is the third problem for China

  • how to deal with the US.

  • On the one hand, the Chinese Communist Party

  • likes to act like a superpower,

  • one that resists the US.

  • Here's China's Foreign MInistry Spokesman

  • and retired Mortal Kombat character Lu Kang

  • responding to criticism from Mike Pompeo

  • about China's role in Venezuela.

  • US Secretary of State Pompeo willfully tarnished China

  • and deliberately drove a wedge into relations

  • between China and Latin America.”

  • But on the other hand,

  • China would not want to hurt

  • its all-important ties with the US

  • because of its economic and investment interests in Latin America.”

  • China is still negotiating a trade deal

  • with the Trump administration.

  • It wouldn't want to to jeopardize a deal with America,

  • just to help Maduro.

  • Even less would the Chinese Communist Party

  • want to find itself in a position where Chinese troops

  • were caught in a skirmish with US troops.

  • What do you think of China's choices in Venezuela.

  • Who will they give their friendship necklace to?

  • Let me know in the comments below.

  • What's that, Shelley?

  • Oh right.

  • And now it's time for me to answer a question from one of you

  • a fan who support China Uncensored

  • with a dollar or more per episode,

  • by contributing through Patreon.

  • Peter Malchiodi asks,

  • How does it make good business sense

  • to deal with people who will end you

  • as soon as they are done benefiting from you?”

  • Peter is asking about Western companies

  • doing business in China.

  • That's a good question.

  • Basically a lot of Western companies

  • that have gone to China

  • end up getting their intellectual property stolen,

  • or they're forced to give it away,

  • and a Chinese company then reverse engineers their product

  • and then out-competes the American company

  • by making cheap knockoffs.

  • And this is no accident.

  • It's done precisely according to

  • the Chinese Communist Party's plans

  • for economically out-competing the US.

  • So why do Western companies

  • keep jumping into the China market?

  • Because there's money now!

  • Consequences are later.

  • Plus, when a lot of these companies

  • started getting hacked and robbed,

  • they...tried to cover it up.

  • I mean, getting taken advantage of like that

  • is so embarrassing.

  • What would shareholders think?

  • So wave after wave of companies go into China,

  • not knowing how previous companies

  • had been taken advantage of,

  • or thinking that of course they would be too smart

  • to get taken advantage of...