Excerpts from The China Reform Monitor reports at the end of February state that Latin America is rapidly becoming a new focal point for Chinese energy exploration according to the New York Times. Their focus is on oil-rich Venezuela which exports roughly 60 percent of its crude oil to the United States. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong signed 19 cooperation deals during their meeting in late January – including a long term arrangement for a Chinese stake in Venezuela’s oil and gas fields – and Venezuelan and Chinese officials have discussed cooperative development of untapped energy reserves in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia.

 

“The United States should not be concerned,” Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s energy minister is quick to reassure, “because this expansion in no way means that we will be withdrawing from the North American market for political reasons.” Growing concern in the U.S. is developing because China already operates two oil fields in Venezuela, and is now set to develop 15 additional fields in the country’s east, as well as possibly partake in the joint exploration of the Orinoco belt – the world’s largest deposit of crude oil.

 

The People’s Republic of China is at a “strategic crossroads” in its political evolution, and must chose between international responsibility and corrosive hegemonic ambitions, a top Defense Department official has said. In a recent speech before the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith warned that Chinese officials must chose how they will “define their national purpose with reference to the freedom, well-being and prosperity of their citizens.” “Rising powers have understood that their worthy hopes can be realized within a well-ordered system of sovereign states,” Feith said. 

 

As a result, Beijing has lashed out at the Bush administration. “The United States should stop using double standards on human rights and stop interfering in the internal politics of China under the pretext of human rights,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao has declared in comments carried by the China Daily. According to Liu, “China has made important progress in human rights, in political and legal areas,” in recent years. The report “will do nothing good for the improvement of bilateral relations,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman has warned. Beijing is planning to retaliate by releasing its own human rights assessment, which will exemplify “the bad records of the United States concerning the invasions into other countries and mistreatment of foreign inmates, as well as the bad records in the aspects of life, freedom and personal security of U.S. citizens.”