In this article, CADAL (Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina) explains how China’s involvement in Venezuela over the past 25 years has played a crucial role in sustaining the authoritarian regimes of both Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. Following his presidential election in 1998, Hugo Chavez proposed the construction of a ‘multipolar world’ with alternative blocks to the traditional centers of power. Beijing met this proposal by building a strategic partnership for shared development with Venezuela. Since 1999, China has increased aid and political support to Venezuela, allowing both Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro to access credit lines, military and medical supplies, and political backing to legitimize their authoritarian regimes. For China, supporting these authoritarian regimes in Venezuela has guaranteed an unconditional ally in the Americas in the midst of a much larger geopolitical dispute with the United States.

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