China risks losing access to satellite tracking stations and other sensitive technology infrastructure in Venezuela after the United States seized control of the country’s leadership and transferred its president Nicolas Maduro to New York for trial.
Beijing’s embedded assets – from satellite ground stations to oilfield systems and telecommunications networks – could be compromised after US President Donald Trump said Washington would “run” Venezuela and “fix oil infrastructure” in the country with the world’s largest crude reserves.
The El Sombrero tracking station at the Captain Manuel Rios airbase, along with its backup in Luepa, Bolivar state, supports Venezuela’s only active remote sensing satellite and is among the few overseas ground facilities accessible to China.
Built by the state-owned China Great Wall Industry Corporation, the stations handle telemetry, tracking and command operations for VRSS‑2, a civilian Earth observation satellite that China developed and launched for Venezuela in 2017.
Though intended for Venezuela’s domestic needs, the stations may also support China’s broader satellite tracking and data relay efforts, especially as Beijing’s expanding space ambitions face limits in securing overseas ground infrastructure due to geopolitical tensions.
China is also Venezuela’s largest foreign investor and one of the top buyers of its oil, with deep footprints across the petroleum sector that may now be in jeopardy.
According to a China National Petroleum Corporation pamphlet from 2014, Chinese engineers helped to overhaul Venezuela’s ageing oilfields with modern drilling rigs, waterflooding systems and refinery upgrades that boosted output by as much as eightfold in some areas.
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