Why China missed out on hosting the Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Chengdu
- China is said to have refused a visa for the new Venezuelan representative, who is backed by opposition leader Juan Guaido
- Beijing is treading carefully because it has a huge stake in the Latin American country, analyst says
China’s economic interests in Venezuela made it impossible to accept a representative from the opposition Juan Guaido camp – even if it meant not hosting the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual meeting, a Chinese analyst says.
It did not give a reason for the move, but US Vice-President Mike Pence said Beijing had refused to grant a visa to the Venezuelan representative designated by opposition leader Juan Guaido.
The Washington-based IDB is the biggest lender to Latin America. It voted last week to give the Venezuelan board seat that was held by a representative of President Nicolas Maduro to Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann, who is backed by Guaido.
On Saturday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the proposed change of the Venezuelan representative “damaged the atmosphere” of the meeting and “disturbed preparations”, according to Reuters. He added that Guaido lacked legitimacy and that Beijing “had difficulty allowing” his representative to attend.
Zhang Sengen, a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China would be careful in how it handled the situation with Maduro and Guaido because it had a huge stake in the Latin American country, and it would not change its stance until the crisis in Venezuela was over.