The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday for operations to stop Venezuela’s illicit trafficking of sanctioned oil, claiming that the seizures, not the trafficking, were the true international crime.
President Trump announced on December 16 that the United States would declare the Venezuelan socialist regime, led by dictator Nicolás Maduro, a foreign terrorist organization. As a result, Washington would impose a “total and complete blockade” on tankers carrying sanctioned oil into and out of the country. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. government announced its first seizure of an oil tanker believed to be heading to Cuba with sanctioned Venezuelan oil. On Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed a second such vessel capture.
While President Trump’s efforts to contain the malignant influence of the Maduro regime have been welcomed warmly by other heads of state in South America, some of Venezuela’s closest allies elsewhere in the world have vocally protested the American counter-terror operations, primarily Russia and China. The Chinese Communist Party, in particular, is heavily invested in Venezuela, having offered Maduro a $5 billion credit line in 2018 payable back in oil.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters that his regime opposed what he described as American “unilateralism and bullying” and that Venezuela had the “right to independently develop” its bilateral relations with countries such as China.
“By arbitrarily seizing other countries’ vessels, the U.S. has seriously violated international law,” Lin declared. “China stands against unilateral illicit sanctions that lack basis in international law or authorization of the U.N. Security Council, and against any move that violates the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, infringes upon other countries’ sovereignty and security, and constitutes unilateralism and bullying.”
“Venezuela has the right to independently develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries,” he concluded. “We believe Venezuela’s position of defending its legitimate rights and interests has the understanding and support of the international community.”
Lin did not comment on Venezuela’s routine violations of international law, including Maduro’s relationships with terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and its extensive list of human rights atrocities against its own people. The Foreign Ministry spokesman also naturally omitted the fact that his own government regularly violates international law by disrespecting the sovereignty of neighboring countries in the South China Sea and engaging in a genocide against the indigenous Turkic people of occupied East Turkistan, among other crimes.
In addition to the Foreign Ministry complaint, the Global Times, a Chinese state propaganda newspaper, published an editorial warning that America had placed itself “in opposition to global moral standards” and that confronting the Venezuelan regime could result in destabilizing South America.
“This ‘chokehold’ targeting a nation’s economic lifeblood will have disastrous consequences for the lives of ordinary Venezuelans,” the Global Times claimed, disregarding the widespread suffering in Venezuela as a direct result of the Maduro regime’s rule.
“The negative consequences of the Monroe Doctrine are evident,” the Times continued, attempting to connect the oil tanker seizures to President Theodore Roosevelt and the failure of socialism in Chile, among other countries.
“The U.S. exploited natural resources and pursued profits in Latin America, resulting in catastrophic consequences for the region and severely violating the basic human rights of the Latin American people, including their right to survival and development,” the Times claimed. “Latin American countries have long been aware of and deeply dissatisfied with U.S. interference in their sovereignty and independence.”
The state newspaper claimed that any American intervention to contain the Venezuelan terror state could cause a “large-scale humanitarian crisis, widespread waves of immigration, and organized crime.” In reality, the regime itself has caused or created all three — as of 2025, the United Nations estimates that nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled socialism since late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez took power in 1999, one of the world’s largest refugee crises.
During Chávez’s term, and expanded under Maduro, the Venezuela regime expropriated the assets of American companies such as Exxon Mobil and Kellogg, effectively stealing the assets of those companies without compensation. President Trump raised the issue of expropriation in his message announcing the seizures of the oil vessels.
“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote on his website, Truth Social, on December 16. “Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS.”
“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” the president affirmed.
The U.S. government first seized an oil tanker linked to Venezuela on December 10, before President Trump confirmed that he would designate the Maduro regime a terrorist organization. The tanker was reportedly en route to Cuba, a State Department-designated state sponsor of terrorism and patron regime to Caracas. On December 20, Secretary Noem confirmed another capture.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said in a public statement. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
Contrary to the Chinese government’s claims that the “global south” opposes President Trump’s initiatives against Venezuela, the leaders of neighboring countries have supported the efforts.
“The atrocious and inhumane dictatorship of narco-terrorist Nicolás Maduro casts a dark shadow over our region. This danger and shame cannot continue to exist on the continent, or it will drag us all down with it,” Argentine President Javier Milei proclaimed this weekend.
“Argentina welcomes the pressure exerted by the United States and Donald Trump to liberate the Venezuelan people. The time for timid approaches to this issue has come to an end,” he continued. “We also urge all other members of the bloc to support this position and strongly condemn this authoritarian experiment.”
Chilean President-elect José Antonio Kast, speaking shortly after his election in mid-December, stated that he supported a military intervention to oust Maduro.
“Clearly we cannot intervene in that because we are a small country,” Kast observed, “but if someone is going to do it, have it be clear to them that they would solve for us and for all of Latin America, for all of South America, a giant problem.”
Kast further claimed that every Latin American leader he had spoken to was “fully conscious that the situation being lived through in Venezuela is unacceptable.”
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