We Will See Many More Venezuelas if China Wins
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 4, 2022
The Floridian

… Haunting images of Venezuela’s ongoing political crisis … reveal the catastrophic failure of the country’s Marxist regime. Nicolás Maduro, along with his predecessor Hugo Chávez, turned what was once one of the world’s greatest oil industries into a pitiful shadow of its former self. Their narco-terrorist thugs jailed, murdered, starved, and exiled anyone willing to stand in their way — and continue to do so.
 
That’s not all, though. When Chávez borrowed over $50 billion from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to support his corrupt regime, he signed away the freedom of generations of Venezuelans to come….
 
Under the guise of helping the regime relieve its massive debt burden, the CCP began exploiting Venezuela’s vast natural resources…. [W]ell over half of all Venezuela’s oil exports are now going to Beijing [at a discount price]…. Beijing takes a similar approach when it comes to Venezuela’s expansive gold supply….
 
Maduro’s tie with the CCP is a grotesque relationship that is sucking Venezuela’s economy dry, depriving the country of precious resources, and contributing to the devastation of the environment. And it is doing absolutely nothing to help the people of Venezuela. On the contrary, Beijing is actively amplifying their oppression, modifying Maduro’s “fatherland card” system to recreate China’s Orwellian social credit regime.
 
This stands as a lesson to all who still stand unbothered by Beijing’s growing power, influence, and underhanded investment strategies…. If the CCP succeeds in supplanting the U.S. as the world’s dominant power…, we will see many more Venezuelas…. It’s why it’s critical that a free and prosperous United States continue to counter the destabilizing influence of authoritarian regimes in the Western Hemisphere and around the globe.
 
Read the rest here.