Still on the comments made by the American Vice President. Pence said Latin America is an example of China's flawed foreign policy. He suggested Chinese loans to Venezuela were making the crisis there worse. China says Pence's comments are baseless. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pointing to what he's calling the mutual benefits of his country's relationship with China. CGTN's Stephen Gibbs has more from Caracas.  

Oil-rich Venezuela is in the midst of a recession of wartime proportions.

That already has regional consequences. For months, several thousand migrants have been leaving this country every day.

But now what is happening here is having global implications, too.

The United States says the only solution is for President Maduro to go. Washington has sanctioned him - and almost his entire cabinet - and restricted Venezuela's access to financial markets.

The U.S. is calling out China - which it says it bankrolling the Maduro government, and just prolonging the misery.

MIKE PENCE US VICE PRESIDENT "Within our own hemisphere, Beijing has extended a lifeline to the corrupt and incompetent Maduro regime in Venezuela, that's been oppressing its own people."

That "lifeline" the vice president mentioned is a five billion dollar loan that Venezuela said it had agreed shortly before Maduro visited Beijing last month. China, however, never confirmed that it is providing any new financing.

China has over the last decade lent Venezuela more than 50 billion dollars, which is mostly paid back in oil. Pence says that has saddled the Venezuelan people with debt - possibly for years to come. But that is not how the government here portrays the relationship.

Hours after Pence spoke, President Maduro paid tribute to a Chinese delegation that has been involved in constructing housing projects in Venezuela. He says the China-Venezuela partnership is mutually beneficial.

NICOLAS MADURO VENEZUELA PRESIDENT "China shows you can be a great power without being an empire. A great power to construct the common destiny of humanity."

STEPHEN GIBBS CARACAS "It wasn't just China's relationship with Venezuela that Pence took aim at in his speech. He also alluded to other diplomatic moves in this region."

Last month China opened its embassy in the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean nation is one of three - along with Panama and El Salvador - that has shifted its ties from Taipei to Beijing this year.

The U.S. says this is troubling, and threatens stability in the Taiwan Strait.

China's response is that the accusation, like others the U.S. has been making, is "baseless". Stephen Gibbs, CGTN, Caracas.