Posted on 12/31/2025 9:56:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Chinese oil tankers are pressing ahead with Venezuela-linked voyages despite a U.S. blockade and an escalating campaign of tanker seizures.
Two Chinese-flagged VLCCs are operating near Venezuelan waters, with the Thousand Sunny due to arrive in mid-January and the Xing Ye waiting off French Guiana, according to a new report by Lloyd's List.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.
President Nicolás Maduro accused Washington of illegally targeting its sovereign oil exports and natural resources, calling the move "utterly irrational," but Trump vowed to expand the U.S. military presence, claiming Venezuela is using oil revenues to fund drug trafficking and crime.
The U.S. has conducted more than 20 military strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats in international waters since September and appears headed toward more military escalation against Maduro's regime in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the second unsanctioned Chinese-flagged VLCC, Xing Ye, is currently slow-steaming off French Guiana as it waits to load crude at Venezuela’s Jose Terminal. Like the Thousand Sunny, its ownership remains undisclosed,
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
What blockade?
Newsweek is exaggerating, most likely
Blow them up. Fight the war now.
All our big cities are demonrat infested. Wrist case we will lose a few and be republicans the next 100 years.
It has always been assumed by the general public at least that nuclear adversaries would attack U.S. cities. Maybe so, but for military strategy and deterrence value against an administration with no political base of support in those cities, don’t you believe that other higher-value targets would be selected? (if any were, of course this ignores the calculation done by adversaries of their own likely consequences should they deploy nuclear weapons). Some high value targets might be in or near cities, others are not.
Just blow up all the oil tanks that would have supplied the oil tanker.
These tankers aren’t on the sanctioned tankers list so I am not sure why this is even news.
This is nonsense. There is no blockade. The U.S. Navy is only intercepting sanctioned oil tankers, not all oil tankers.
Democratic controlled cities are the commies best friends, they would never lob warheads into those cities. Chicago has a sister city relationship with Shanghai and Shenyang where they have exchanges in arts, business, and culture. If China bombed Chicago, they would be taking out many of their own spies.
Is the Three Gorges Dam near big Chinese cities? You can guess that it is a target.
Ships: Xing Ye, Thousand Sunny
Message:
Ship dat sail undah Chinee Frag Dis-peer wi'out tlace.
Take out the Internet and the world collapses.
No worries, the Chicoms will back down if we let in another 600k students. Trump has a real fight on his hands this time. This isn’t like smoking sand rats or cartel drones in boats.
So its a two-fer.
China has a naval force in that area....?
Hows that rail gun launcher thingy working...?
Chinese steel..welding..assembly..maintenance are all inferior Chinese junk {no pun intended}
Let them tank up.....then SEIZE them.
Sell them and give proceeds to drug programs here in US.
The ChiCom’s will fold like a cheap Mai Tai umbrella in a Bangkok dollar bang bang bar.
If they equivocate The Gulf of America with the South China Sea.....we say FU.....we go where we please....you go where we permit.
The Asian Reds count on sack-less Western pu$$ies retreating from their bullying.
Show them some sack.
Don’t know if it’s true, but here is something I read:
Trump Isn’t “Pirating Ships” — He Must Seize and Sell 300 Venezuelan Oil Tankers to Satisfy an International Court Judgment Owed to U.S. Companies
A lot of people are reacting emotionally to the idea of oil tankers being seized, but most of the outrage comes from not understanding what is actually being discussed.
So let’s slow this down and explain it clearly, legally, and step by step.
This is not war.
This is not piracy.
This is judgment enforcement — the same principle used every day when courts seize bank accounts, property, aircraft, or cargo from someone who lost in court and refuses to pay.
1. What Venezuela did (the part that always gets skipped)
In the 2000s, under Hugo Chávez, Venezuela seized oil projects owned by foreign companies, including major U.S. firms such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
This wasn’t a policy disagreement.
It was expropriation:
• Contracts were broken
• Assets were taken
• Compensation that had been agreed to was not paid
That is not controversial. It is historical fact.
2. What the courts decided
Those U.S. companies didn’t complain on social media.
They went to international arbitration and U.S. courts — the proper legal venues.
They won.
The rulings were:
• Final
• Binding
• Enforceable
Venezuela lost and was ordered to pay tens of billions of dollars in damages.
3. The real problem: Venezuela refused to pay
Here is the key point most critics ignore:
Venezuela refused to comply with the court judgments.
In any legal system — domestic or international — when a party:
• Loses in court
• Owes a judgment
• Refuses to pay
…the law allows creditors to seize commercial assets belonging to the debtor outside its borders to satisfy the judgment.
This is called judgment enforcement.
Countries do not get a free pass simply because they are countries.
4. Why oil tankers even enter the conversation
Venezuela’s primary commercial asset is oil.
Oil moves on oil tankers.
Those tankers:
• Carry state-owned Venezuelan oil
• Are commercial property, not military or diplomatic assets
• Can be lawfully seized by court order in cooperating jurisdictions
This is no different in principle from seizing:
• A bank account
• A plane
• A shipment of goods
Calling this “piracy” is legally incorrect.
Piracy is theft without lawful authority.
This is court-ordered seizure to collect a debt already ruled on.
5. The math everyone avoids
Let’s use conservative, realistic numbers so no one can claim exaggeration.
• Estimated unpaid court judgments: ~$35 billion
• Oil price used: $62 per barrel
• Typical large oil tanker (VLCC): ~2 million barrels
Value of one full tanker:
• Gross value: ~$124 million
• Net value after realistic court-sale discounts: ~$115 million
Now do the math:
$35,000,000,000 ÷ $115,000,000 ≈ 300 tankers
That’s where the number comes from.
Not one tanker.
Not ten.
About three hundred.
One tanker only covers about one-third of one percent of what Venezuela owes.
6. What this means — and what it does NOT mean
This does not mean:
• Tankers are being randomly grabbed
• This is a military action
• The goal is punishment
It does mean:
• Courts already ruled
• A debt legally exists
• Enforcement is the only option left when payment is refused
When Donald Trump talks about seizing oil shipments, he is not inventing a new power.
He is talking about using existing legal authority to enforce judgments Venezuela already lost.
In plain English:
You took property, you lost in court, you refused to pay — so your commercial assets are seized and sold until the debt is satisfied.
That is how the rule of law works.
7. Why you don’t see hundreds of tankers seized
Because enforcement is:
• Legally narrow
• Jurisdiction-dependent
• Deliberately targeted
Venezuela also structured its exports to:
• Avoid enforceable ports
• Use intermediaries
• Break shipments into smaller pieces
So tanker seizures are rare, careful, and strategic, not mass roundups.
Tankers are leverage, not a magic wand.
The bottom line
• Venezuela seized U.S. assets
• Venezuela lost in international court
• Venezuela refuses to pay
• The debt is ~$35 billion
• A tanker is worth ~$115 million net
• It would take ~300 Venezuelan oil tankers to make the judgment whole
This is lawful enforcement, not piracy.
This is accounting, not aggression.
This is what happens when court rulings are ignored.
Final thought
People arguing “this sounds extreme” are missing the most important fact:
The court already decided.
Once that happens, enforcement isn’t optional — it’s inevitable.
Everything else flows from that reality.
Nothing to seize.
The tankers aren’t on the sanctioned list.
The tankers will arrive in Venezuela, get oil, and depart/reach China.
Good points. Probably goes right over most people’s heads.
This the first I’ve heard of this. Trump should be explaining this. Perhaps at the State of the Union address….
But Trump and his people should be making this clear.
China always tests and retests its enemies. It’s currently making a serious push for Taiwan, with lots of drum beating and sword waving. The US Navy is the big bouncer keeping China out of Taiwan’s doorway, so China is taking every opportunity to test US resolve — everywhere.
So, what’s the US to do?
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