Chinese Oil Tankers Challenge US Blockade off Venezuela

Newsweek ^ | 12/31/2025 | Amira El-Fekki‎

[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.

Why It Matters

The movements come as China said it opposed U.S. oil seizures and naval pressure on Venezuela. President Donald Trump is tightening maritime enforcement to choke off oil revenues to Caracas, which has in turn said the blockade won’t deter its oil shipments, and is reportedly deploying vessels to escort commercial vessels carrying petroleum products.

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.

What To Know

The report published Tuesday said Thousand Sunny was in the southern Atlantic on Monday, having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope without cargo, and has not diverted or slowed since Trump announced an oil blockade on Venezuela in mid-December. The Chinese-flagged tanker of unknown origin is not sanctioned by the U.S. and has been transporting Venezuelan Merey crude to China for a half-decade.

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,

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TOPICS: China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: actofwar; amiraelfekki; axisofevil; blockade; china; maduro; newsweek; oiltanker; oiltankers; recognizetaiwan; seizethem; tankers; thousandsunny; venezuela; xingye

[SeekAndFind]

[BenLurkin]

What blockade?

[madison10]

Newsweek is exaggerating, most likely

[TigerClaws]

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.

[Peter ODonnell]

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.

[ConservativeMind]

Just blow up all the oil tanks that would have supplied the oil tanker.

[piasa]

These tankers aren’t on the sanctioned tankers list so I am not sure why this is even news.

[Salohcin]

This is nonsense. There is no blockade. The U.S. Navy is only intercepting sanctioned oil tankers, not all oil tankers.

[dznutz]

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.

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.

[desertsolitaire]

Is the Three Gorges Dam near big Chinese cities? You can guess that it is a target.