China and Venezuela: South-South Cooperation or Rearticulated Dependency?

• Author: Rodrigo Acuña,Emma Miriam Yin-Hang To
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18813574
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 225, Vol. 46 No. 2, March 2019, 126–140

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18813574

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

126

China and Venezuela

South-South Cooperation or Rearticulated Dependency?

by

Emma Miriam Yin-Hang To and Rodrigo Acuña

China’s increased participation in the world market and its consequent demand for

energy has contributed to exacerbating the vulnerability of many externally oriented

resource-rich countries. As a consequence, since the early 2000s the relationship between

China and Venezuela has gone far beyond trade to an “energy cooperation” model with

joint ventures and development funds not only in oil but also in nonresource sectors of the

Venezuelan economy. Despite massive increases in social expenditure, Latin American

theorists arguing from a neo-dependency perspective have questioned the long-term ben-

efits of this so-called cooperation. They have characterized the relationship as “neoextrac-

tivist” in reference to the historically dependent relationship between Latin America and

countries in the Global North. Whether the relationship is seen as based on South-South

cooperation or on rearticulated global political and economic inequalities depends on

whether the focus is on the behavior of the Chinese state and Chinese companies or on

bilateral agreements between the two states. Although politically the relationship is based

on cooperation, economically it displays many of the structural problems that Venezuela

has faced since the discovery of oil.

La mayor participación de China en el mercado mundial y la consiguiente demanda de

energía han contribuido a exacerbar la vulnerabilidad de muchos países ricos en recursos

con orientación externa. Como consecuencia, desde principios de la década de 2000, la

relación entre China y Venezuela ha ido mucho más allá del comercio a un modelo de

“cooperación energética” con empresas conjuntas y fondos de desarrollo no solo en el sec-

tor petrolero sino también en los sectores de la economía venezolana fuera de los recursos.

A pesar de los aumentos masivos en el gasto social, los teóricos latinoamericanos que

argumentan desde una perspectiva neo-dependentista han cuestionado los beneficios a

largo plazo de esta llamada cooperación. Han caracterizado la relación como "neoextrac-

tivista" en referencia a la relación históricamente dependiente entre América Latina y los

países del Norte Global. Si se considera que la relación se basa en la cooperación Sur-Sur

o en desigualdades políticas y económicas globales rearticuladas depende de si la atención

se centra en el comportamiento del estado chino y las empresas chinas o en los acuerdos

bilaterales entre los dos estados. Aunque políticamente la relación se basa en la coope-

ración, económicamente muestra muchos de los problemas estructurales que Venezuela ha

enfrentado desde el descubrimiento del petróleo.

Keywords: China, Venezuela, Energy cooperation, Neoextractivism, Dependency

Emma Miriam Yin-Hang To is a Ph.D. candidate in political economy at the University of Sydney.

Rodrigo Acuña is an associate lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies at Macquarie

University. They thank the LAP editors and issue editors and appreciate the constructive feedback

of the reviewers in sharpening the arguments of this article.

813574LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18813574Latin American PerspectivesTo and Acuña / South-South Cooperation Or Dependency In Venezuela?

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