China has condemned Trump’s Venezuela blockade. But it may also see some upsides to a new era of gunboat diplomacy

China has ample reason to oppose the ramp-up of American military pressure on Venezuela and the recent US interceptions of tankers tied to its oil.

The US manoeuvres, part of President Donald Trump’s “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned vessels around Venezuela, strike at the economic heart of one of Beijing’s closest Latin American partners – and target an industry that has long benefited China, which in recent months took in roughly 80% of Venezuela’s oil exports, analysts say.

Beijing has slammed those interceptions as “seriously violating international law” and assured Caracas of its opposition to “all forms of unilateralism and bullying” in a call between the countries’ top diplomats last week.

But it’s also clear that Beijing is primed to use the US aggression to its advantage: playing it as another reason on its list of why the US should not be the world’s leading superpower, and a window into how Trump is rolling out his revival of the Monroe Doctrine.

The White House’s national security strategy released earlier this month includes a revamp of that centuries-old policy, updating what historically was a warning to European colonial powers not to interfere in the Western hemisphere to a Trump-era vision for a “stable” region “free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets.”