Venezuela crisis watched by China immigrants who fled chaos with anxiety – and hope
- Unlike China’s government, the Chinese immigrants who left their shattered dreams behind in Venezuela are no fans of Maduro
With Venezuela’s future up in the air, and the prospect of regime change imminent, a group of Chinese immigrants who fled the South American country’s chaos are watching with great anxiety as well as hope.
The rule of President Nicolas Maduro, successor of socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, looks increasingly fragile after the US and major regional players Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Argentina all gave their backing to opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim leader on Wednesday.
China, the country’s largest foreign creditor, continues to back the Maduro regime, but the mood among Chinese immigrants, whose dreams for happiness and prosperity in Venezuela were smashed by hyperinflation and social unrest under his rule, are mixed.
At its peak, Venezuela’s Chinese population numbered about 400,000 when Maduro became president in 2013, after the death of Chavez, but that number has shrunk rapidly in the past few years, according to those who have returned to China.
Liang Lintao lived in Venezuela for 24 years and became a naturalised Venezuelan citizen. He returned to his hometown Enping, a county in Guangdong province, southern China, in early 2017 after the social and economic situation in Venezuela went from bad to worse.
“When I returned to China in 2017, I thought I was taking a short-term break before I could go back to Venezuela … I didn’t expect it would take so long,” Liang said.
“Clearly, we hope the rebel movement can bring change to Venezuela. The economic situation and living conditions have been getting worse and worse over the past few years.
“Tens of thousands of Chinese like me had to flee and suffered huge [economic] losses,” he said.
Although half a world away, Liang is watching the developments in Venezuela closely, maintaining close contact with his business partners who are still in the country. He is not in a hurry to return but that plan is never far from his mind.
“Venezuela’s in turmoil. We don’t dare to go back until a new government is able to operate normally,” Liang said.
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Mey Hou, a mother of three from Enping, fled Venezuela with her children in December 2015, bringing down the curtain on 15 years of hope for a better life overseas.
Hou said her family sold its grocery shop in Caracas via an agent last year. Her valuation of the store was US$150,000, but the final selling price was only US$10,000.
She had to accept the price because she would have probably lost her shop for nothing if she didn’t. “It’s just another form of robbery,” Hou said.
The sharp degeneration of Venezuela’s economy is also putting China’s state creditworthiness at risk. The China Development Bank (CDB), a state lender, has poured at least US$37 billion into the country of 30 million people over the past decade, with most of it repayable in oil, Venezuela’s major natural resource.
Feng Xueting, who runs an air ticket agency in Enping, said most Chinese who returned from Venezuela had no choice but to wait for the situation there to settle down.
“It’s just way too chaotic there, it’s almost impossible to make money,” Feng said.
“Now there’s potential for a big change … I guess any change would be better than no change,” she said.
"It's too early to say there's new hope. It really depends what side the Venezuelan military stand for." said Mingli Zhong, who lived and worked in Venezuela for a decade before returning home to Enping in 2017.
"For its Chinese community, we just pray for a government to let the people have a stable life, and restore stability for the exchange rate.
“If [that happened], I believe many Chinese immigrants would go back to Venezuela and have a new try because the economic situation is also getting worse on the mainland," he said.
