Loading ...China to tax Venezuelan crude: the possible end of an alliance that marks another chapter in Maduro’s economic debacle
The Chinese government is set to start collecting the 30% environmental tax on June 12, effectively doubling the cost of Venezuelan oil imports, making it commercially unviable, analysts say.
There has to be a catch, some observers suspect, as it is hard to understand way China would suddenly turn its back on Maduro and potentially risk its significant stake in Venezuela’s oil industry.
“At the end of the day, does China want to hurt Maduro? That seems highly unlikely. There has to be something in the background to this that helps him”, said Jorge Pinon, an oil industry veteran and director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas.
The tax’s timing, coming only three months after Joe Biden entered the White House, has also raised geo-political speculation about the impact which could potentially increase Washington’s leverage to force political concessions from Maduro.
Some experts say China has shown signs that it may have lost patience with Maduro and could even be willing to walk away from Venezuela.
“It’s been quite clear for some time that China’s interest in doing much for Maduro has waned,” said Maximilian Hess, an Asia expert with the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.
Observers note that Venezuela has disappeared from the headlines in Chinese state media, a marked change from the past when Beijing reveled in Maduro’s anti-U.S. defiance.