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China is a major customer of and investor in Venezuela's oil sector, which President Donald Trump aims to revive following the US military's ouster of President Nicolas Maduro ‌on Saturday.Years of mismanagement, underinvestment and, more recently, US sanctions have ‌slashed Venezuelan crude production ‍to about 1.1mn barrels per day (bpd) last year from a peak of some 3.5mn bpd ⁠in the late 1990s, according ⁠to official figures.Here are details on Beijing's role in the country's oil sector.A MAJOR ‍BUYER: Much of Venezuela's exported oil is sold to China, although Beijing declares very little and imports are often rebranded. Imports hit about 470,000 bpd during 2025, according to energy analytics firm Vortexa, or roughly 4.5% of China's seaborne crude imports.Small independent refiners known as "teapots" are the main Chinese buyers of discounted Venezuelan crude. A portion also goes to repaying Caracas' debt to ‌Beijing, which analysts estimate exceeds $10bn. AN INVESTOR AND PRODUCER: Chinese investors poured $2.1bn into the country's oil sector after 2016, according to a 2023 estimate from the American Enterprise Institute, and ‍are among a handful ⁠of foreign firms still ‌operating in the country. China National Petroleum Corp: The major state-owned oil company was a big investor before the US imposed sanctions in 2019 and still produces crude at the Sinovensa joint venture with state-owned oil company PDVSA. CNPC stopped lifting Venezuelan oil in 2019, but crude has since made its way to China via traders and other state-owned firms. CNPC is a partner in a joint venture that controls 1.6bn barrels of oil reserves in the country, according to Morgan Stanley.Sinopec Group: The state-owned giant is a partner in a joint venture that controls 2.8bn barrels of reserves in Venezuela, ‌according to Morgan Stanley. CNPC and Sinopec did not immediately respond to queries on their Venezuela involvement.China ⁠Concord Resources Corp: The private ‍company planned last year to invest more than $1bn in two oilfields to produce 60,000 bpd by the end of 2026, Reuters reported. The company could not be reached for comment.Kerui Petroleum: The private oil services company was granted an oil production contract in 2024 by PDVSA, according to a July 2024 S&P report, citing ​an anonymous PDVSA official. It was unclear if the contract is active, as many are not. The company did not respond to a request for comment.Anhui Erhuan Petroleum Group: The private refined oil wholesaler and retailer was also granted an oil production contract in 2024 by PDVSA, according to the same S&P report, again citing an anonymous PDVSA official. It was also unclear if the contract is active. The Chinese company denied any involvement in a PDVSA joint ⁠venture in a phone call to Reuters on Monday. 

The first full trading week of the new year could shake the US stock market out of its winter holiday slumber as investors parse the rapid developments in Venezuela while monthly jobs data looms.Stocks slid in the final session of 2025, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling into a monthly loss for December. But the index still climbed more than 16% in 2025, its third straight year ⁠of double-digit percentage gains, while the Cboe Volatility index ⁠was just above its lows for the year.Trading volumes were thin at the end of 2025, but the new year could get off to an eventful start.In dramatic weekend events, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro.Investors said such developments in the oil-rich country raised the concerns around geopolitical risks, and that any oil price volatility would ripple through assets.Investors also await more drama with a US Supreme Court decision looming on Trump's tariffs, along with his choice of a new Federal Reserve chair, and US corporate earnings season is around the corner.In the first session of 2026 on Friday, the S&P 500 posted a slim gain as semiconductor shares rallied.Though the benchmark is near record highs, it is hovering around its late October level, said Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak."The market is looking for direction," Maley said. "We break out of these ranges and that's going to give people either a lot of confidence or a lot of ⁠concern, depending on which way it breaks."The employment data due on January 9 could provide a jolt either way. Concerns over weakness in the labor market prompted the Fed to lower interest rates at each of its last three meetings of 2025, as the US central bank juggles its goals of full employment and contained inflation.Lower rates have supported equities, but the extent of further cuts in 2026 is unclear. Fed officials were divided over the path for monetary policy at the most recent meeting in December. Inflation remains above the Fed's 2% annual target.With the benchmark rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, Fed funds futures suggest little chance of a cut at the next meeting in late January, but nearly a 50% chance of a quarter-point reduction in March."Softening in the labor market has really given the Fed good cover to change their outlook about reducing rates," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management in Chicago.At the same time, investors are wary that an overly weak report could signal more economic concern than markets now anticipate.Employment for December is expected to have climbed by 55,000 jobs, a Reuters poll showed. Payrolls rose ⁠by 64,000 in November, but unemployment of 4.6% was at a more than four-year high."If (employment) starts turning down in any kind of meaningful way, that's going to signal that the recession is a lot closer than people think," Maley said.Other data next week includes manufacturing and services sector activity, along with job openings and other labor market data. Economic releases are returning to more normal schedules after a 43-day government shutdown that delayed or canceled many key reports.A closely watched report on inflation trends, the monthly US consumer price index, is due out on January 13."Anything that has to do with underlying economic activity and inflation is really going to catch the market's attention," said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.A backdrop of modest economic growth and moderating inflation is "a good environment for stocks and for risk assets in general," he added.Investors will be preparing for the fourth-quarter earnings season, with results from JPMorgan due on January 13, among other major bank reports that week.With stocks trading at historically lofty valuations, investors are banking on strong earnings growth. Overall S&P 500 company earnings are expected to have climbed 13% in 2025, with another rise of 15.5% in 2026, LSEG IBES data shows."To make an investment case for the S&P 500 at current levels, one must believe ⁠in some combination of good and very good earnings growth and continued investor confidence in economic conditions and macro policy," Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, said in a research note.

The US attack on Venezuela will embolden China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and ‌parts of the South China Sea but will not hasten any potential invasion of Taiwan, analysts said.Chinese President Xi ‌Jinping's considerations about Taiwan and his timeline are ‍separate from the situation in Latin America, influenced more by China's domestic situation than by US actions, they said.Still, analysts said, President Donald Trump's audacious attack on Saturday, capturing ⁠Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, hands China an unexpected opportunity that ⁠Beijing will likely use in the near term to amplify criticism of Washington and bolster its own standing on the international stage.Further ‍out, Beijing could leverage Trump's move to defend its stance against the US on territorial issues including Taiwan, Tibet and islands in the East and South China seas."Washington's consistent, long-standing arguments are always that the Chinese actions are violating international law but they are now damaging that," said William Yang, an analyst at International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO."It's really creating a lot of openings and cheap ammunition for the Chinese to push back against the US in the future."China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own province - an assertion the island's government rejects - and claims almost all of the South ‌China Sea, a position that puts it at odds with several Southeast Asian nations that also claim parts of the vital trade route.**media[400973]**China's foreign ministry and Taiwan Affairs Office, and Taiwan's presidential office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Beijing condemned Trump's strike on Venezuela, saying it violated international ‍law and threatened peace and security in Latin ⁠America. It has demanded the ‌US release Maduro and his wife, who are being detained in New York awaiting trial.Hours before his capture, Maduro met with a high-level Chinese delegation in Caracas, according to photos he posted on his Instagram page.The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the whereabouts of the delegation, which included China's special representative for Latin American and Caribbean affairs, Qiu Xiaoqi.China's official Xinhua news agency Sunday called the U.S. attack "naked hegemonic behaviour.""The US invasion has made everyone see more and more the fact that the so-called 'rules-based international order' in the mouth of the US is actually just a 'predatory order based on US interests'," state-run Xinhua news agency said.Taiwan, in particular, has been facing growing pressure from Beijing. China last week encircled the island in its most extensive war games to date, showcasing Beijing's ability to cut off the island from outside support in a conflict.But analysts said they did not ​expect China to capitalise on the Venezuelan situation to ‌escalate that into an attack anytime soon."Taking over Taiwan depends on China's developing but still insufficient capability rather than what Trump did in a distant continent," said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations ⁠at Renmin University in Beijing.Neil Thomas, a fellow on ‍Chinese politics at the Asia Society, said China sees Taiwan as an internal affair and so was unlikely to cite US actions against Venezuela as precedent for any cross-strait military strikes."Beijing will want a clear contrast with Washington to trumpet its claims to stand for peace, development and moral leadership," Thomas said. "Xi does not care about Venezuela more than he cares about China. He'll be hoping that it turns into a quagmire for the US."Wang Ting-yu, a senior lawmaker from Taiwan’s ruling party who sits on the parliament’s foreign affairs and ​defence committee, rejected the idea that China might follow the US example and strike Taiwan."China has never lacked hostility toward Taiwan, but it genuinely lacks the feasible means," Wang posted on Facebook. "China is not the US, and Taiwan is certainly not Venezuela. If China could actually pull it off, it would have done so long ago!"Still, the situation amplifies risks for Taiwan and could press Taipei to seek more favour from the Trump administration, some observers said.On China's Weibo social media platform, discussions of the US attack trended heavily Sunday, with several users saying Beijing should learn from what Trump did.Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said he expected Taiwan's government to express lightly worded support for American action on Venezuela. Taiwan has not yet made any statement."What I ⁠do think Trump's actions could do is to help Xi Jinping's narrative in the future to create more justification for action against Taiwan," he said. 

The State of Qatar expressed its deep concern over the ongoing developments in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, calling in this context for restraint, de-escalation, and the adoption of dialogue as the appropriate means to address all outstanding issues.In a statement Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed the State of Qatar's position advocating adherence to the Charter of the United Nations and the established principles of international law, including obligations under the Charter to resolve international disputes through peaceful means.The ministry reiterated the State of Qatar's full readiness to contribute to any international effort aimed at achieving an immediate peaceful solution, underlining its commitment to keeping channels of communication open with all concerned parties.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a state of emergency in the country following aerial strikes against the capital Caracas.The Venezuelan government said that President Maduro declared a state of emergency to defend Venezuelan territory.The government said that the armed forces were deployed along with popular forces to protect sovereignty and order.The government statement accused the United States of launching the air strikes against it. Washington has not issued any comment on the matter.The statement stressed that what Venezuela was subjected to constituted a violation of the UN Charter, adding that it threatens peace and securityin Latin America and the Carribean region.The Venezuelan government said that it will make an official complaint to the UN Security Council and to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC).

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves after snatching leftist leader Nicolas Maduro out of the country during a bombing raid on Caracas.Trump's announcement came hours after a lightning attack in which special forces grabbed Maduro and his wife, while airstrikes pounded multiple sites, stunning the capital city.Trump did not go into detail what he meant but told a press conference in Florida: "We're going to be running it with a group.""We're designating people," he said, mentioning that cabinet officials standing with him would be in charge.In another surprise, Trump indicated that US troops could be deployed in Venezuela.The US is "not afraid of boots on the ground," he said.**media[400644]**Although the operation is being framed as a law-enforcement action, Trump made clear that regime change and Venezuela's oil riches are the major goals."We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure," he said."We'll be selling large amounts of oil," he said.The 79-year-old Republican posted a picture of Maduro in custody on a US naval ship wearing a blindfold, handcuffs and what looked like noise-canceling ear muffs. He and his wife were being taken to New York to face narcotics and terrorism charges.Trump dismisses opposition leaderUS-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media: "the hour of freedom has arrived."She called for the opposition's candidate in the 2024 election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to "immediately" assume the presidency.But Trump scotched any expectation that Machado should emerge as Venezuela's new leader. She doesn't have "support or respect" there, he said.He indicated he could instead work with Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying "she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again."Trump also made clear that the US presence is unlikely to be short."We're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place."The United Nations chief said he was "deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected."China, a backer of Maduro's hard-left regime, said it "strongly condemns" the US attack, while France warned that a solution for troubled Venezuela cannot "be imposed from outside."Black-out and bombingVenezuelans had been bracing for attacks as US forces, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, spent months massing off the coast.**media[400645]**Caracas residents woke to explosions and the whir of military helicopters around 2am (0600 GMT). Airstrikes hit a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, for nearly an hour, AFP journalists said.The bombing turned out to be only part of the more ambitious plan to topple Maduro and bring him to US soil to face narco-trafficking charges.Trump said the assault began with a partial blackout caused by US "expertise."The top US military officer, General Dan Caine, said 150 aircraft took part in the operation, supporting troops helicoptering in to seize Machado with the help of months of intelligence into the leader's daily habits — down to "what he ate" and what pets he kept.Maduro, 63, and his wife "gave up" without a struggle and there was "no loss of US life," he said.Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of La Guaira, near the heavily bombed main airport, told AFP that the blasts "lifted me out of bed, and I immediately thought, 'God, the day has come.'"Within hours of the operation, Caracas had fallen eerily quiet, with police stationed outside public buildings and a smell of smoke drifting through the streets.Shifting justificationsThe US and numerous European governments already did not recognise Maduro's legitimacy, saying he stole elections both in 2018 and 2024.Maduro — in power since 2013 after taking over from leftist mentor Hugo Chavez — long accused Trump of seeking regime change in order to control Venezuela's huge oil reserves.Trump said the extraordinary snatching of a foreign country's leader was justified because of his claim that Venezuela is responsible for mass death from drugs in the United States.But Trump has given a variety of justifications for the aggressive policy toward Venezuela, at times stressing illegal migration, narcotics trafficking and the country's oil industry.He had previously avoided openly calling for regime change — likely mindful of his nationalist political base's dislike for foreign entanglements.Several members of Congress quickly questioned the legality of the operation. However, Trump's key ally Mike Johnson, Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, said it was "decisive and justified." 

The Venezuelan army announced a large-scale military deployment across the country, coinciding with the arrival of a US aircraft carrier off the coast of Latin America, which Washington says is intended to support anti-drug trafficking operations.Venezuelan media broadcast statements by senior military officers in several states, accompanied by images showing extensive military exercises.In the same context, the US Southern Command said that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, whose deployment was ordered about three weeks ago, has entered the command's area of ​​operations, which includes Latin America and the Caribbean.Since last August, Washington has maintained a military presence in the Caribbean Sea, including six warships, asserting that its objective is to combat drug trafficking into the United States.According to US reported, twenty airstrikes targeting vessels suspected of carrying drugs have resulted in the deaths of at least 76 people.Venezuelan authorities, however, accuse the United States of using anti-drug operations as a pretext to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and forcibly change the regime.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received on Friday a phone call from the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro.During the call, the President affirmed Venezuela's solidarity with the State of Qatar and its strong condemnation of the Israeli attack, stressing that it is a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms.The Venezuelan President also stressed his categorical rejection of any aggression that threatens the security and safety of the State of Qatar and undermines the security and stability of the region.He hailed the role of His Highness the Amir and the State of Qatar in resolving conflicts and mediation efforts around the world.For his part, His Highness the Amir affirmed that the State of Qatar will take all measures to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty in the face of the treacherous Israeli attack.His Highness the Amir expressed his thanks to the Venezuelan President for his sincere feelings and his country's appreciated solidarity with the State of Qatar and its people.

Lionel Messi scored twice for Argentina in emotional scenes in Buenos Aires on Thursday while Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay joined the reigning champions at next year's World Cup.In his last home qualifier for his country and with Argentina having already booked their place in North America, Messi struck in the 39th and 80th minutes to bag a 3-0 win over Venezuela. Messi, who has won the Ballon d'Or eight times, sparkled in front of an adoring crowd of 80,000 at the Mas Monumental stadium to underline his enduring quality.The Argentine legend will turn 39 during next year's World Cup, but despite his advanced years he looks set to play another pivotal role as Lionel Scaloni's side defend their crown. Scaloni will rest his skipper for next week's dead-rubber at Ecuador. "He made an enormous effort and deserves a rest and to be with his family," said the coach. "He ended up very tired and physically exhausted. He should have come off, but he didn't because of the emotional nature of the match."Messi had his three sons with him before kickoff and his father, Jorge, was also in attendance to mark the occasion.Uruguay sealed their berth in the United States, Canada and Mexico by beating Peru 3-0 at home while Colombia saw off Bolivia by the same scoreline. Paraguay also reached the 2026 finals after a 0-0 home draw against already qualified Ecuador. Brazil, who had also already qualified, swept Chile aside 3-0 at the Maracana with the English Premier League trio of Estevao, Lucas Paqueta and Bruno Guimaraes getting the goals.It was the 18-year-old Chelsea winger Estevao's first goal for his country. In front of 60,000 at a packed-out Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Rodrigo Aguirre put Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay on their way on 14 minutes. The Club America forward leapt highest to place a thumping header into the top corner past Peru goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.The Uruguayans, winners of the World Cup in 1930 and 1950, had needed just a point to qualify and send their charismatic veteran coach Bielsa to the tournament once again.The 70-year-old has now taken a third team to World Cup qualification. Bielsa's appointment as Uruguay coach in 2023 was greeted with excitement, even euphoria, but an underwhelming qualification campaign has dampened that enthusiasm.Qualification was always likely in a system that sees six of the 10 CONMEBOL sides qualify automatically for 2026, with one more heading into an inter-continental play-off. Venezuela currently hold seventh place with one more qualifier to go.Giorgian de Arrascaeta doubled Uruguay's lead just before the hour, lashing home from close range to ensure a party atmosphere in the Uruguayan capital. Federico Vinas scored a third 10 minutes from time.Colombia also sealed their place in next summer's extravaganza thanks to a comfortable victory over Bolivia. The 34-year-old former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich attacker James Rodriguez, the breakout star of the 2014 World Cup, pounced just after the half-hour mark. Jhon Cordoba made sure there were no late scares with his goal in the 74th minute, before Juan Fernando Quintero made it three.Like Uruguay, Paraguay needed only a draw to qualify when they hosted Ecuador. They got the job done as they ground out a goalless stalemate and will be at their ninth World Cup but first since 2010.