Chinese online debate splits after U.S. capture of Venezuela’s president

When U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, Chinese social media erupted, exposing a sharp divide between nationalists who urged emulation of the U.S. action toward Taiwan and critics who treated the episode as a warning about authoritarian decline. On the platform Weibo the related hashtag rose to the No.

1 spot and drew over 600 million views in the first 24 hours, according to data from the platform. Nationalist users argued the operation showed American lawlessness and pressed that China could or should arrest Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching‑te; others used veiled references, including the pop song title “Too bad it’s not you,” to criticize Xi Jinping while attempting to evade censors.

Images shared online calling for Mr. Xi’s capture were noted as unlikely to remain visible on Chinese platforms and often circulate on X accounts beyond domestic censors. The episode touched longstanding ties between Beijing and Caracas. Beginning in the mid‑2000s, China extended tens of billions of dollars in loans to Venezuela largely through oil‑for‑loan arrangements, and officials have repeatedly defended the cooperation as orderly even as Venezuela’s oil output and infrastructure declined.

The timing of Mr. Maduro’s seizure, hours after a meeting with an official Chinese delegation, prompted questions about judgment and state capacity, while some liberal commentators invoked parallels between the political trajectories of Xi Jinping and Hugo Chávez.

Key Topics

World, Nicolás Maduro, China, Venezuela, Xi Jinping, Lai Ching-te