Entre a sobrevivência e o desenvolvimento: capital chinês e capitalismo rentístico na Venezuela (2007–2021)

Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of China’s economic integration into Latin America, with a focus on the Venezuelan case, arguing that the impact of Chinese capital on the development of recipient countries depends fundamentally on each state's institutional capacity to put forward its own agenda. To support this argument, the study reconstructs the Chinese cooperation model—based on the principles of non-interference and a demand-driven system—and examines the trajectory of Latin American development from primary-export dependency to the collapse of the industrialization project. It demonstrates that, in the absence of state planning, Chinese capital tends to deepen existing primary-sector specialization. The Venezuelan case is treated as an extreme manifestation of this dynamic, drawing on Baptista’s (2010) concept of rentier capitalism; the analysis reveals that, amidst the isolation imposed by US sanctions, Chinese capital functioned less as a driver of development and more as a minimal condition for economic survival.