Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro is meeting with the top Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, as the socialist leader of the troubled Latin American oil producer is looking to convince China to provide new loans to plug some of the widening gaps in Venezuelan finances. In one of many tweets on Thursday praising China and its communist founder Mao Zedong, Maduro said that the two countries will boost economic, trade, energy, financial, political, and cultural ties. Over the past decade, China has reportedly lent around US$60 billion to Venezuela, most of which constitutes loans up front in exchange for future Venezuelan oil deliveries. But Venezuela’s economic and oil industry demise was expected to result in its crude oil exports to China plummeting this summer to their lowest level in almost eight years. In July, China’s Development Bank was said to have approved a US$5-billion loan for Venezuela’s oil industry, […]