US Diplomacy: Kidnapping as a 'Shock' to Beijing
According to Al Jazeera's reporting, China reacted with 'shock' to the alleged US attempt to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. A US indictment from March 2020 charged Maduro with narco-terrorism, placing a $15 million bounty on his head (source: US Dept. of Justice press release, 2020). This isn't the first time the US has meddled in Venezuela; the US recognized opposition leader Juan
Guaidó as the legitimate president in 2019, despite Maduro winning a 2018 election that international observers deemed flawed, but which the US unilaterally dismissed. The surprise isn't that the US would target a sovereign leader it dislikes—see Noriega in Panama or Aristide in Haiti (US State Dept. memos, 1990, 2004)—but that anyone's still 'shocked' by the methods. Does Beijing have a preferred
'manner' for regime change? Perhaps diplomatic tea and biscuits for the target, instead of drug charges and bounties? How many 'sovereignty shocks' does it take before the world stops pretending US foreign policy isn't consistently, overtly aggressive diplomacy?