Chinese Defense Firm Defies US Sanctions, Imports Venezuelan Oil To Offset Debt

Welcome to Sound of Hope News, I'm Golden Lee. China defies US sanctions against Caracas to ship Venezuelan oil as part of a deal to offset billions of dollars of debt to Beijing. According to Reuters, since November of 2020, the Chinese defense firm China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation has been carrying Venezuelan crude oil on three tankers it acquired that year from state-owned company PetroChina. The three CASIC tankers loaded in Venezuela with the transponders active, allowing third-party tracking. So far, the Chinese firm has taken 13 cargos carrying a total of nearly 25 million barrels of oil, with two more tankers arriving in China next month. According to an unnamed source in the Reuters report, the 13 shipments, worth about $1.5 billion, were declared crude oil at Chinese customs without specifying origin. The source revealed, these shipments are strictly under a government mandate, where CASIC was designated to move the oil as payment to offset Venezuelan debt to China. All money from the proceeds stay in China. Venezuela's foreign affairs ministry is in charge of consolation and accountability. Emma Lee, an analyst from Vortexa which tracks such flows, said, at roughly 42,000 barrels a day, these shipments have increased total Venezuelan oil to China between January and July to about 3% of China's consumption. However, Beijing has not officially reported any crude oil imports from Venezuela since October of 2019. The source said they enter China under a special green channel. To date, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the China National Petroleum Corporation, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the U.S. Treasury Department, which enforces the sanctions, have not responded to Reuters' requests for comments.