A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), titled Warning signals: Venezuela and the risk of Chinese AI-enabled digital authoritarianism, details how Venezuela's government built a surveillance state a decade ago using technology from Chinese companies. According to the report, in 2025 then-Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez led an effort that resulted in an agreement to adopt Chinese-built AI systems to enhance existing state-sponsored surveillance.
One of the companies involved is iFlytek, which the United States banned in 2019 for its role in helping Beijing repress the Uyghur Muslim population of China's Xinjiang region. After the USA effectively took over Venezuela in January 2026 and installed Rodríguez as the nation's leader, ASPI finds no evidence she has changed course on adopting more Chinese surveillance technology.
“Venezuela will become one of the first countries outside China to import China’s new generation of LLM-based AI systems for surveillance and control, and the most advanced adopter in the Western Hemisphere,” the report claims.
While ASPI analysts do not believe Venezuela can recreate China's full-stack surveillance apparatus, they worry that “Chinese or other AI tools could strengthen a domestically directed apparatus already used to manage dissent, restrict information and preserve political power.” This, they argue, leaves Venezuelans no better off than before the US replaced former President Nicolás Maduro, and leaves the USA effectively running a nation that relies on Chinese surveillance tech to maintain power, even as Washington seeks a greater role in Venezuelan affairs.
ASPI called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio—who effectively acts as viceroy of Venezuela—to dismantle the surveillance apparatus and enact political change. The think tank believes doing so would signal that democracies are willing to combat China's efforts to export its surveillance technology.
“Beijing for its part recognizes this opening, and the risk it poses to Chinese companies and China’s political influence there,” the report states, noting that China's leaders appear to understand that assets and investments of its national champions are at risk in Venezuela. Beijing's approach, according to ASPI, is partly to strengthen oversight of state-owned assets abroad.
The report does not address whether greater adoption of Chinese surveillance by Venezuela increases the risks the USA faces as it seeks to control the South American country.