Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has announced $20bn worth of investment from China. But left unsaid was whether he got what he came for: a financing lifeline from his largest creditor.
The obfuscation speaks volumes about how China’s decelerating economy and crumbling commodity prices are testing its courtship of Latin America and underscores Beijing’s reluctance — already signalled in Zimbabwe — to commit cash blindly even to its closest friends in resource-rich countries.
That is bad news for Latin America. Over the past decade Beijing has disbursed more than $100bn of trade credits and investment to the region and this week some of its biggest clients are coming cap in hand, seeking fresh funds to tide them through lean times.
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