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China's not-so-generous offer to 'help' fix Venezuela's blackout: It's a Takeover Opportunity
American Thinker ^ | 03/13/2019 | Monica Showalter

Posted on 03/13/2019 9:01:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

As patients die in hospitals and ordinary Venezuelans scrounge for water from sewers based on a horrific going-on-six-days nationwide blackout, China hasn't been idle, watching the spectacle unfold.  The Venezuelan socialist regime's incompetence and neglect may have created a humanitarian crisis all right, but more important to China, the blackout also cut off Venezuela's oil production.  That's what Venezuela uses in order to pay its $23-billion pile of bailout loans back to China. 

So, six days after the crisis, China's state-owned CGTN reports that China is willing to "help":

China's Foreign Ministry is concerned about the power blackout in Venezuela and hopes the country will find the cause of the incident as soon as possible.

The ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks on Wednesday during a daily briefing.

China is willing to provide technical support for Venezuela to help restore the power, Lu added.

It's vague, but that's about all the news there is.  Reuters has a similar report.

How very generous of them!  The hospital patients are dead, the food is spoiled, the aid is blocked, and the New York Times reports that the power issue isn't going to be easily fixed.  There is reportedly some version of power on now in much of the country, but I wouldn't count on it lasting, and I doubt it's reached western Venezuela, from which there are no reports.  Now it's China to the rescue.

China just wants the power on so that the oil production can go back up and its loans to Venezuela can get repaid.  It also likely sees a new opportunity to extend its influence.  Both objectives are premised on holding Venezuela's Maduro dictatorship in power, which isn't exactly something that serves Venezuelans' interests.

Venezuela's massive power outage actually cut off oil production, the country's only source of income. 


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackout; china; venezuela
According to the Washington Post:

The blackouts have also hit Venezuela's oil industry.  The country hasn't shipped $358 million in oil since the power failures started, and "the whole system is grinding to a halt," said Russ Dallen, a Miami-based partner at the brokerage firm Caracas Capital Markets.

Two large tankers are sitting empty at the Jose offshore oil-loading dock, and at least 19 other ships are waiting their turns there, Dallen said.

With the country's oil production miserably low even before the blackout, the lost dollar amount was merely hundreds of millions, not billions.  But it still is the only income socialist Venezuela has, so its incompetence-linked blackout amounted to cutting off its own money supply — and the oil that China is "owed" based on all those billions extended in loans.  No wonder China wants the power back on.

1 posted on 03/13/2019 9:01:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Aren’t those Chinese nice people. After our EMP attack, I bet they offer to help us get the lights back on too. Does anyone remember the Monroe Doctrine? Good times.


2 posted on 03/13/2019 9:06:41 AM PDT by rhombus10
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To: rhombus10

They may have ulterior motives but at least they can help. Lots of people are going to die without power, no refrigeration, no water, big mess. Actions have consequences, they should have considered that before voting for free stuff.


3 posted on 03/13/2019 9:22:46 AM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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And it gets them much closer to the Panamanian gateway.

When you control the gateways... it is scriptural.


4 posted on 03/13/2019 9:23:28 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: VTenigma

They had bad teachers. What else?


5 posted on 03/13/2019 9:27:26 AM PDT by rhombus10
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m sure China would also help with the extraction of oil from Venezuela’s vast proven reserves in return for ‘fixing’ their power grid issues.


6 posted on 03/13/2019 9:42:29 AM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: SeekAndFind
I'll just drop this here....


7 posted on 03/13/2019 9:42:49 AM PDT by caww
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To: rhombus10

Whats our excuse?


8 posted on 03/13/2019 10:04:14 AM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s a Takeover Opportunity
Socialism takes another hit.


9 posted on 03/13/2019 10:15:46 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: VTenigma

For voting for free stuff? Same reason.


10 posted on 03/13/2019 10:46:27 AM PDT by rhombus10
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To: VTenigma
The Chinese may be the only ones with enough operators and technicians that understand an old analog generation and transmission system to be able to get the mess down there running again.

In the USA, most,if not all of our control systems have been digital for a very long time.

Only we old, retired geezers would know how to bring on generators by manually synchronizing phases.

Anybody can start one generator in a system.

The rest have to be synchronized with the phase of the first.

If you are connecting to a grid that already has power from elsewhere, you have to synchronize to that.

With the operators gone, either by fleeing the country or replaced by political buddies of the socialists, nobody is going to know how to do this.

As they try to bring generators on line, they are potentially going to burn up transformers, burn up generator windings, shear the shafts between the generators and the turbines, melt power lines and burn up appliances at the end user.

Depending on the damage untrained operators have already caused, it might take the Chinese years to put Humpty Dumpty back together, with the technologically illiterate socialist regime losing patience and blaming them.

This is one we should sit out and let nature take its' course.

Along with the ignorant humans problem, this is a humid, wet, fast growing jungle area.

Corrosion at every electrical connector and switch in the control equipment is a problem.

Trees and vines shorting out transmission lines is a big problem.

Good luck to whoever steps into this mess.

11 posted on 03/13/2019 11:34:31 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: Mogger

What we are witnessing here is a mini version of what an EMP attack or other, simpler attacks would do to the USA.


12 posted on 03/13/2019 11:37:30 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: SeekAndFind

What happened to the Monroe Doctrine? Bring it back today Mr President! European and Asian hands off the western hemisphere.


13 posted on 03/13/2019 12:12:49 PM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: Mogger

This is one we should sit out and let nature take its’ course.


I could not agree more, but probably we won’t.


14 posted on 03/13/2019 12:37:07 PM PDT by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: Vaduz
It’s a Takeover Opportunity

Here is an idea for Venezuela: auction off the oily northeastern land as New Venezuela to the highest bidder and offer to relocate the citizens to the beautiful west and south. There are about 100,000 barrels of oil per Venezuela citizen in the ground, mostly in the northeast. Monetize your oil into cash now! (You can almost hear the lawyers on TV commercials.) You could pay every citizen at least $10,000 per year for life. For a family of 8 that's $80,000 per year to lay on the beach, drink Venezuelan coffee, and eat fresh chocolate.

15 posted on 03/13/2019 12:38:25 PM PDT by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
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To: Reeses

Plan A we shall see.


16 posted on 03/14/2019 8:29:15 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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