Beijing follows a policy of non-intervention and routinely criticises military activity conducted without the UN Security Council's approval. The U.S. military's removal of the leader of one of China's "all-weather" strategic partners from his capital in the dead of night will be a litmus test of Beijing's assertion that it can play a role in resolving global hotspot issues without following Washington down the military route.

The United States administration’s pursuit of its own version of vigilante justice in Venezuela has sent reverberations across multiple national capitals.