China Lends Venezuela $20 Billion, Secures Oil Supply

[Jun]

China Lends Venezuela $20 Billion, Secures Oil Supply (Update1)

By Daniel Cancel

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- China will lend Venezuela $20 billion and form a joint venture with a state company to pump crude oil from an Orinoco Belt block, President Hugo Chavez said as he promised to meet the Asian country’s energy needs.

The financing from China is separate from a $12 billion bilateral investment fund, Chavez said, and will pay for Venezuelan development projects. Venezuela currently sends China 460,000 barrels a day of crude oil. The oil is used to repay the Asian country for $8 billion Venezuela used from the fund for infrastructure projects.

“We agreed on a huge, long-term financing plan,” Chavez said on state television on April 17. “This is a larger scope, a super heavy fund. China needs energy security and we’re here to provide them with all the oil they need.”

Venezuela, the largest oil producer in Latin America, is diversifying its export markets and seeking loans from Russia and Japan in a bid to boost oil output and finance social programs. Chavez expects $120 billion of investment to flow into the Orinoco Belt in Eastern Venezuela in the next seven years to increase daily production by as much as 1 million barrels.

State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA and China National Petroleum Corp. signed a joint-venture agreement in Caracas that will require a $20 billion investment to pump and refine heavy crude oil at the Junin 4 block of the Orinoco Belt.

Hu Jintao Visit Canceled

PDVSA, as the Venezuelan company is known, will hold a 60 percent stake in the block that is expected to eventually produce 400,000 barrels a day, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on April 16. CNPC will have to pay the Venezuelan government as much as $1 billion to access the reserves, he said.

A Chinese delegation led by Zhang Guobao, head of the Chinese National Energy Administration, attended the signing ceremony in Caracas after President Hu Jintao canceled a planned visit to Venezuela and Chile following an earthquake that killed more than 1,400 people in China’s Qinghai province. Hu is expected to reschedule his trip.

The two countries plan to build three electric plants powered by petroleum coke with a capacity of 300 megawatts each, Chavez said. Another thermoelectric plant will be built in Merida state to produce 500 megawatts, he said.

Venezuela is grappling with a severe electricity crisis following a drought that dried up reservoirs behind hydroelectric plants. The country plans to spend $6 billion this year to boost thermoelectric output.

Trade Surges

Trade between the two countries surged to $8.9 billion in 2008 from $85.5 million in 1999, according to Venezuela’s state bank, Bancoex.

Chavez said that the $20 billion loan is the largest that China Development Bank Corp. has extended to a country, and will go toward funding housing, railroad, energy and agriculture projects. China built and launched Venezuela’s first satellite into orbit in 2008.

China last year agreed to loan Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, as the company is known, $10 billion last year, and signed a long-term supply contract with the company.

“The relations between China and Venezuela extend from below the surface of the earth to outer space,” Chavez said. “We’re producing oil together and our satellite is out there in space. This is a mutating world in transition.”

--Editors: John Chacko, Mike Millard.

China Lends Venezuela $20 Billion, Secures Oil Supply

 

[Evil Flare]

Why don't China lend half that amount to Pakistan and save them from IMF, World Bank stringent norms ?

& What will China Gain from that ??


Its a Business ....

 

[Cisco-GUY]

& What will China Gain from that ??


Its a Business ....

Spare me the ignorance, but where is your friendship/brotherhood of higher than Himalayas and deeper than ocean ? And read carefully, i said "lend" and not "give".

On a second note, this deal is not going to go easy with US. Chavez, more or less, is in same league of Ahmadinejad. China may attempt something on lines of Cuban missile crises, a stunt that it is not capable of pulling out.

 

[Martian2]

Spare me the ignorance, but where is your friendship/brotherhood of higher than Himalayas and deeper than ocean ? And read carefully, i said "lend" and not "give".

On a second note, this deal is not going to go easy with US. Chavez, more or less, is in same league of Ahmadinejad. China may attempt something on lines of Cuban missile crises, a stunt that it is not capable of pulling out.

China has done more to help Pakistan than any other country. China has helped Pakistan with a $500-million-dollar aid package, build two more nuclear reactors totaling 680 MegaWatts, build hydroelectric project, build satellite, and build railway. Unfortunately, being a poor country, China still has 130 million people living in poverty that needs help.

The Pakistan Ledger (see last newslink) states: "The Chinese have gone out of their way to help Pakistan, even losing the lives of their citizens in the process."

Still much to be done in fight against poverty
"Apr 8, 2009 ... By Albert Park (China Daily) Updated: 2009-04-08 07:46 ... A 10 per cent poverty rate means that there are more than 130 million poor in the ..."

China Gives $500 Million in Aid Package, Pakistan Says - WSJ.com
"Beijing agreed to extend $500 million in aid to Pakistan, a rare move by China to take a leadership role in a global crisis."

China to help Pakistan build two more nuclear reactors
"China to help Pakistan build two more nuclear reactors
October 18th, 2008 - 7:47 pm ICT by IANS

Islamabad, Oct 18 (DPA) Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Memhood Qureshi Saturday said China has assured the country to help build two more nuclear power reactors to overcome its energy crisis. An agreement was signed during President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visit to China, Qureshi told a news conference in Islamabad.

“These two new units will increase electricity production by 680 megawatts, which will have positive effect on Pakistani economy,” he said."

China to help Pakistan build hydro-electric project
"Mar 25, 2008 ... China to help Pakistan build hydro-electric project. ... Birdie said the project was of “national importance” to Pakistan as upstream India ..."

China to help Pakistan build satellite | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
"Sep 19, 2009 ... China to help Pakistan build satellite. 08:44 19/09/2009 China will assist Pakistan in building a new communications satellite, ..."

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...help+for+pakistan+railway+worries+india-za-13
"Jun 3, 2009 ... Chinese help for Pakistan railway worries India ... NEW DELHI: Indian officials are worried that China is involved in building what they say ..."

http://pakistanledger.com/2010/03/12/china-will-continue-to-support-pakistan-on-kashmir/
"Mar 12, 2010 ... The Chinese have gone out of their way to help Pakistan, even losing the lives of their citizens in the process. ..."

 

[Cisco-GUY]

China has helped Pakistan with a $500-million-dollar aid package, ..."

$500 million aid package ? Give me a break, Pakistan has donated that much in Afghanistan itself. In China v/s India or China v/s US d1ck measuring contest, Chinese don't get tired by showing how wealthy they are. Infact, they are correct. China has $2 trillion foreign reserve with no debt placing it as richest nation and one of the most vibrant economies in the world.

And now throwing "poor" canard at me while shamelessly sitting on $2 trillion reserve ? Am i supposed to believe you ?

Wake up, I am not Chinese and you are not Xinhua!!

 

[Martian2]

$500 million aid package ? Give me a break, Pakistan has donated that much in Afghanistan itself. In China v/s India or China v/s US d1ck measuring contest, Chinese don't get tired by showing how wealthy they are. Infact, they are correct. China has $2 trillion foreign reserve with no debt placing it as richest nation and one of the most vibrant economies in the world.

And now throwing "poor" canard at me while shamelessly sitting on $2 trillion reserve ? Am i supposed to believe you ?

Wake up, I am not Chinese and you are not Xinhua!!

I will ignore your irrelevant rhetoric. Let's look at the important facts. China has 1.3 billion people (i.e. 1,300,000,000). China is a developing country. China has 130 million poor people (i.e. 130,000,000). China's per-capita income is ranked 103rd in the world. China has a lower living standard than Peru, Namibia, Angola, Ecuador, Algeria, El Salvador, Tunisia, and Jordan.

China has spent tremendous resources to help Pakistan and delayed pulling her own citizens out of poverty. Are you denying that China has helped Pakistan more than any other country? Also, are you denying that China has 130 million poor people? If not, please keep your silly rhetoric to yourself.

Finally, try to get your facts straight before making wild claims. China's national debt is approximately 18.2% of GDP (see https://www.cia.gov/library/publica...ina&countryCode=ch&regionCode=eas&rank=101#ch).

China Has 130 Million Poor People - Photo - LIFE
"China Has 130 Million Poor People
SHANGHAI, CHINA - JANUARY 4: (CHINA OUT) A resident walks past building ruins at a street on January 4, 2007 in Shanghai, China. There are 130 million poor people in China, most earning less than US$1 a day, according to the World Bank."

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, ... On the whole PPP per capita figures are more narrowly spread than nominal ... The third column includes data from The World Factbook, provided by the Central Intelligence Agency. ..... 103, China, People's Republic of, 3600, 2009 est. ..."

 

[Cisco-GUY]

I will ignore your irrelevant rhetoric. Let's look at the important facts. China has 1.3 billion people (i.e. 1,300,000,000). China is a developing country. China has 130 million poor people (i.e. 130,000,000). China's per-capita income is ranked 103rd in the world. China has a lower living standard than Peru, Namibia, Angola, Ecuador, Algeria, El Salvador, Tunisia, and Jordan.

China has spent tremendous resources to help Pakistan and delayed pulling her own citizens out of poverty. Are you denying that China has helped Pakistan more than any other country? Also, are you denying that China has 130 million poor people? If not, please keep your silly rhetoric to yourself.

Finally, try to get your facts straight before making wild claims. China's national debt is approximately 18.2% of GDP (see https://www.cia.gov/library/publica...ina&countryCode=ch&regionCode=eas&rank=101#ch).

LOL, seeing first time a Chinese bashing China. Don't let 50 cents deduct from your account

China provided $25 billion aid to African nations in 2007

China's foreign aid game

The fact is, no matter how you twist it, propagandize it or play victim card, China is already playing a double game to meet its narrow ends. Nothing wrong with that, i just want Pakistanis to stop blaming US for its ills & praising China at same time.

China will give bullet but NOT butter. Higher than himalayas and deeper than ocean hypocrisy.

 

[Martian2]

Martian 2, well said!

That guy is clearly a troll here, tempting with his pathetic flam. Just report him! He isn't worth replying.

I will do as you say and ignore him. Obviously, he is incapable of understanding that the total value of China's "support" to Pakistan is generous. Furthermore, he does not seem to understand that Africa is a continent with 54 countries. China's per-country help to an African nation is likely less than the total "support" to Pakistan. I didn't even mention the transfer of military equipment at "friendship" prices.

Finally, how hard can it possibly be to understand that China is still working on helping to pull 130 million of her own people out of poverty? China is being very generous to help other countries instead of immediately helping her own people that are making less than $1 a day.

 

[Cisco-GUY]

I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor - The Dark Side of China Aid - NYTimes.com

A growing number of developing countries receive billions of dollars a year in assistance, loans, and investments from China. Already in 2010, Beijing has committed $25 billion to Asean nations. In March, Zambia’s president returned from a trip to China with a $1 billion loan in hand.

As Beijing’s levels of foreign assistance swell and its relationship deepens with countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, a key question emerges: What impact will investments by an opaque and repressive superpower have on governance standards in the developing world?

Findings from a Freedom House analysis, “Countries at the Crossroads,” point to the challenges that many of these recipient countries confront as they struggle to build more transparent and accountable systems. Fighting corruption and safeguarding freedom of expression and assembly are proving especially difficult. The dark side of Beijing’s engagement, with its nontransparent aid and implicit conditions, risks tipping the balance in the wrong direction.

To appreciate the “China effect” on developing countries, it is essential to understand the methods Beijing is using to exert influence and warp incentives for accountable governance.

First, as international financial institutions and donor organizations seek to encourage stronger governance norms, aid from China has become an alternate source of funds. Recipient governments use these as a bargaining chip to defer measures that strengthen transparency and rule of law, especially those that could challenge elite power.

Cambodia is a telling example. The government in Phnom Penh, which has received substantial aid from the United States and other democracies, now receives comparable amounts from China. The Cambodian authorities have used this “assistance competition” to their advantage. Rather than combating corruption and implementing sorely needed reforms to the judiciary and media sector, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has shrunk space for alterative voices and independent institutions. Western donors, fearful of losing influence, have been increasingly hesitant to penalize the regime for its failures.

In October, the Guinean government announced a $7 billion deal with the China International Fund just as the international community was considering sanctions following a massacre of opposition supporters. The case underscores how even investments by a private entity, this one with ties to Beijing, can be manipulated to undermine efforts to support human rights standards.

Second, while “no strings attached” is commonly used to describe China’s approach in the developing world, the reality is not quite so benign. A combination of subtle and not-so-subtle conditions typically accompanies this largesse. Included among these is pressure to muzzle voices critical of the Chinese government, often undermining basic freedoms of expression and assembly in these countries. The authorities in Nepal, which have recently received a 50 percent boost in aid from Beijing, have violently suppressed Tibetan demonstrations, including the arrest of thousands of exiles in 2008. In December of last year, Cambodia’s government forcibly repatriated 20 Uighurs to China, where they face almost certain imprisonment and torture. Three days later, Beijing announced a package of deals with Cambodia estimated at $1 billion.

Even more democratically developed countries are not immune to such pressures. In March 2009, the South African government barred the Dalai Lama’s attendance at a pre-World Cup peace conference.

Third, Chinese aid funds are frequently conditioned on being used to purchase goods from firms selected by Chinese officials without an open bidding process. In Namibia, anti-corruption agencies are investigating suspected kickbacks in a deal involving security scanners purchased by the government from a company until recently headed by President Hu Jintao’s son. Beijing’s response has been to stonewall investigations and activate its robust Internet censorship apparatus, sanitizing online references to the case Chinese citizens might stumble across.

Observers such as the scholar Larry Diamond have identified countries that are semi-democratic, rather than autocracies, as the most promising ground for expanding the ranks of consolidated democracies globally. The patently negative aspects of the Chinese Communist Party’s developing world influence could deal a real blow to this aspiration.

Findings from Freedom House’s global analysis of political rights and civil liberties put this phenomenon in perspective. Over the past five years countries with only some features of institutionalized democratic systems have slipped significantly — 57 countries within the “partly free” category have experienced declines, while only 38 improved.

Beijing’s deepening involvement in these cases may generate a number of effects, some perhaps positive for short-term economic development. But the dark underbelly of the Chinese regime’s involvement — the opacity of its aid and the illiberal conditions that underpin it — means that over the long haul, incentives for strengthening accountable governance and basic human rights are being warped, or even reversed.

Christopher Walker is director of studies and Sarah Cook is an Asia researcher at Freedom House.

 

[below_freezing]

you're using articles from Freedom House, a CIA sponsored radical rightwing group?

monetarily we might not give alot to pakistan, but we give things money cannot buy. can money buy industrialization? hell no, look at the arab dictators. but what did we give pakistan? nuclear reactors and the technology to both build and improve their warplanes. give someone a fish and he'll eat for a day, give someone a fishing pole and he'll eat for his life. it doesn't matter that some fish are worth more than a fishing pole.

 

[applesauce]

I will do as you say and ignore him. Obviously, he is incapable of understanding that the total value of China's "support" to Pakistan is generous. Furthermore, he does not seem to understand that Africa is a continent with 54 countries. China's per-country help to an African nation is likely less than the total "support" to Pakistan. I didn't even mention the transfer of military equipment at "friendship" prices.

Finally, how hard can it possibly be to understand that China is still working on helping to pull 130 million of her own people out of poverty? China is being very generous to help other countries instead of immediately helping her own people that are making less than $1 a day.

meh, the way i see it, china doesn't own Pakistan anything, how much money we give and how much help we provide is totally up to the leadership of china, clearly they value Pakistan as shown by all these aid deals and soft-loans and other military/civilian deals. if some people are ungrateful and cannot understand that being a friend does not entitle them to free money, our money, then we cannot help them, after all investment in Africa yields much minerals and oil, investment in Pakistan at the present yields relatively little compared to these other deals

 

[Peshwa]

China is becoming the newest member of "Economic Hitman Club".....

The next great war will be to secure resources and I think China has just got its feet wet....
Let the games begin....!!!

 

[FireFighter]

China is becoming the newest member of "Economic Hitman Club".....

The next great war will be to secure resources and I think China has just got its feet wet....
Let the games begin....!!!

The bigger question is: Will China replace NATO in the next 20 - 30 years? That would be an amazing feet and a day in the history.


Unlike India that is in bed with imperialists, Chinese hate imperialists. Look at them, they have had problems with neighbouring countries dominated/influenced by imperialist regimes. Japan on one hand, Taiwan on the other, South Korea at the back. And they're also one of the only countries that freed an imperialist colony - Hong Kong.

India seems to be on the losing end as its hardly making any diplomatic progress into the underdeveloped world.

 

[pmukherjee]

The bigger question is: Will China replace NATO in the next 20 - 30 years? That would be an amazing feet and a day in the history.


Unlike India that is in bed with imperialists, Chinese hate imperialists. Look at them, they have had problems with neighbouring countries dominated/influenced by imperialist regimes. Japan on one hand, Taiwan on the other, South Korea at the back. And they're also one of the only countries that freed an imperialist colony - Hong Kong.

India seems to be on the losing end as its hardly making any diplomatic progress into the underdeveloped world.

Apart from an obvoius and a somewhat ill informed blind faith nearly bordering on psychophancy, there is not much sense in this post.

The NATO is a collaboration of a number of like minded nations with very high technological and economic standards which got together to fight a perceived common existential threat. Even though today its continued significance is heavily debated, none the less, its military clout and global reach remains second to none. How does one nation compare itself with this group of the most advanced nations in the world is a moot question.

Let us not kid ourselves, most of Chinese military hardware is fashioned after Soviet/Russian systems. The Chinese indegenous military industry today is poised to take off and chart its own course but the foundation is all Soviet/Russian. And is any one unaware of the fact that Russia is one of the foremost imperialist powers the world has seen? Russia has a six hundred year long history of imperialism. Does the anti-imperialist ideology of the marxists USSR negate the inherrently imperialist character of Russia in 73 short years?

China has been in bed with imperialist Russia far longer than India will ever be. Even today, the Chinese are shopping actively in Russia and other component states of erstwhile USSR like Ukraine.


India is not in bed with any one. However, we do need high tech infusion from the leaders in the field just like everyone else. We will get what we need from whoever gives it to us. Be it imperialist Britain or France or USA or imperialist Russia who has been our greatest friend through the thick and the thin.

 

[Sanchez]

India is not in bed with any one.

Are you kidding?