Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had a Plan B in the event the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declined to back his country's proposal to cut output to boost prices. The day after OPEC's Nov 27 decision to maintain production at current levels, a move that drove oil prices to new lows, a somber-looking Maduro went on national television to tell the Venezuelan people he was dispatching Finance Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres to Beijing. The late Hugo Chavez cozied up to China as part of his drive to curb US influence in the Americas. Maduro, like his predecessor, has relied on Beijing to underwrite Venezuela's flagging socialist revolution and finance the country's gaping fiscal deficits (this year's shortfall could amount to 15% of GDP). But China is starting to recognize the danger of becoming overextended to Maduro, whose popularity is in freefall. The Chinese have to be worried about Maduro's falling support, says Vanessa Neumann, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.