China caught off guard by Maduro's capture

Beijing condemned U.S. actions in Venezuela as questions grow over China's influence in Latin America and implications for Taiwan

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

I hope you’ve had a good start to the new year.

And a quiet start this was not. Hours before being captured by U.S. forces in Caracas, former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro hosted a Chinese delegation that included China’s Special Representative for Latin American Affairs Qiu Xiaoqi, suggesting the operation may have caught Beijing off guard. On Monday, the PRC’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China was “deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the U.S.’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and the forcible seizure of its president.”

The U.S. intervention immediately raised questions about the sustainability of Beijing’s involvement in Latin America and whether it could embolden the PRC to accelerate plans related to Taiwan.

ChinaFile put these and other questions to a group of experts in “How Will China Respond to Maduro’s Capture?”

As this is the first issue of 2026, I’m making it available to al…