China offers Venezuela help with its power grid crisis

Beijing has offered technical support to help Venezuela fix its failing security grid, as looting broke out in the western region of the country and President Nicolás Maduro accused the US of implementing a cyber attack that was responsible for Venezuela’s worst power blackout to date, reported the Financial Times.

Venezuela has been without electricity for six days, causing water pumps to fail, telecommunications networks to break down, hospitals unable to keep equipment running, food to expire and oil exports from Venezuela’s biggest energy terminal to shut down.

“China hopes Venezuela will figure out the reason for this incident as soon as possible and restore electricity supply and social order. China is willing to provide help and technical support to restore Venezuela’s electricity system,” said Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry.