CHANEL RION: China is likely the biggest force behind the Gaza war in promoting Palestine, Hamas protests around the globe. [Trump's Venezuela offensive is] his proxy war against China, and he's the only president in history who is actually fighting China where it hurts.

The reporter is Chanel Rion.  Find her @ Twitter.

Rubbish take. He's signaling to the Praetorians and their Devil's Legions (intelligence agencies) HQd in Venezuela, that we'll use US Military assets to fight them should they take the US to civil war. https://t.co/JEdbVfRP80

— EM Burlingame - 蒲 奕 言 (@EMBurlingame) October 17, 2025

Trump is officially 3 and 0 with China.  Here is what nobody is talking about. China had a heavy investment in Iran. Trump neutered them. China had a heavy investment in Gaza. Trump secured a regional firewall.  China straightforwardly controlled Venezuela for two decades. Trump's moving in, and China is blinking for a third time.  And that's why everyone is asking the wrong questions when it comes to Venezuela.  The cover story is this: Trump's military buildup toward Venezuela is about countering narco-terrorism and targeting drug cartels, like Tren de Aragua, which are tied to the president Nicholas Maduro's regime. But analysts go a step further, and they still miss the mark when they say, "Well, this is really about regime change."  It's neither of these things.  I mean, yes, we've got a drug problem, but it's actually tied to a much bigger issue. Trump's Venezuela offensive is much bigger.  It's his proxy war against China, and he's the only president in history who is actually fighting China where it hurts.  As of this week, Trump has positioned over 10,000 US troops and 8 worships in the region.  We have helicopters and Reaper drones taking out narco boats.  We have F-35s, and Venezuela has scrambled their jets.  And this week Trump has authorized the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela.  We'll dive into that one a little deeper in the next segment. All of this to ostensibly to go after drug boats and fight narco-terrorism yet everyone is taking this at face value.  Listen.  

Why not have the Coast Guard stop them which it is empowered by law to do?  --White House reporter. 

Trump answers the question as asked.

Because we've been doing that for 30 years and it has been totally ineffective.  --President DJT.

Even the ostensibly right-leaning National Review gets it wrong by musing that this is all about regime change.  "Trump Sure Looks  to Be Pursuing Regime Change in Venezuela," Jim Geraghty, National Review, October 15, 2025.

Here's why this whole Venezuela offensive is really about China, and this is a shadow war against Beijing, the first in history that looks like it will actually work.  You see, attacking Maduro is attacking Xi Jinping.  To think that Maduro is some independent agent is naive and foolish.  Why is Venezuela basically China? Well follow the money, the oil money.  Again, remember what I said yesterday about why China is likely the biggest force behind the Gaza war in promoting Palestine, Hamas protests around the globe. Remember, it's about taking advantage of bad leadership that sits over cheap oil and cheap resources.  China sweeps in and buys out the leadership, gets free gas essentially.  Venezuela is the poster boy of this predatory China oil game.  Beijing is Venezuela's largest creditor by far.  Venezuela's, over $60 billion dollars in debt to Beijing since 2007.  It pays Beijing back in, you guessed it, oil.  Venezuela is economically paralyzed by sanctions.  The only country supporting Venezuela meaningfully is Beijing, because they're the primary buyers.  This forces Venezuela to sell their oil for next to nothing, meaning they'll forever be indebted to Beijing.  That's the whole game.  That's the way China plays.  In May 2025 at the China CELAC forum, Beijing gave Venezuela an additional $1 billion dollars in new oil Investments, solidifying Venezuela's position as the front lines of the US-China shadow war.  But China's interests in Venezuela go far beyond cheap oil and economics. Chinese companies are neck deep in modernizing Venezuela's ports and Telecom infrastructures, and, as in all things related to Chinese companies, you're a fool to think that Chinese Communist Party does anything without making it a dual military civilian use project. 

"China's Arms Diplomacy in Venezuela Affects Stability in the Western Hemisphere," Joshua Chang, Georgetown Security Studies Review, October 27, 2020. 

I'll say it again.

China does not allow its companies to operate in the world unless it could also be used for their national security purposes.  So don't be fooled when Trump is using all this force and manpower and CIA expertise in Venezuela.  This is Trump taking the war to China.  He is doing what no other president before him was even remotely capable of accomplishing.  Trump is declaring war on China's most valuable assets: Iran, Venezuela, Gaza.  What do these tin pot dictatorships have in common?  They'd be nothing without the Chinese Communist Party, and China would be nothing on the geopolitical stage without them.  And now Trump is taking them--Iran, Gaza, and now Venezuela. Three strikes and you're out, Xi.