Venezuela was supposed to repay its loans from China with oil. The US blockade on Venezuela’s crude industry means that Beijing won’t see any that oil it is owed – at least for the time being.
Is China’s economic model reaching a breaking point? In GZERO’s 2026 Top Risks livestream, Cliff Kupchan, Chairman of Global Macro at Eurasia Group, highlights mounting pressures on the Chinese economy.
How will energy shape global power in 2026 and beyond? In GZERO’s 2026 Top Risks livestream, Gerald Butts, Senior Advisor at Eurasia Group, breaks down the growing US-China competition for energy dominance.
2026 is a tipping point year. The biggest source of global instability won’t be China, Russia, Iran, or the ~60 conflicts burning across the planet – the most since World War II. It will be the United States.
US President Donald Trumpsaid Tuesday Venezuela would ship up to 50 billion barrels of crude oil, worth about $3 billion, to the US. Hours later, the US energy secretary said Washington would “indefinitely” control Venezuela’s oil industry, which is currently run by the Venezuelan government.
