Roving Periscope; After brokering the Saudi-Iran thaw, China hosts Syria’s Assad
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Fearing a coup at home and fighting the financial demons he created, Chinese President Xi Jinping has for months been avoiding foreign visits. He did not attend even the G-20 Summit in New Delhi early this month.
But he is ‘inviting’ foreign leaders to visit China to boost his supporters’ morale.
The latest visitor is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who began his first visit to China after 2004 on Friday in his latest attempt to end over a decade of diplomatic isolation under Western sanctions, the media reported on Friday.
He will meet President Xi in Hangzhou on Friday.
President Assad is set to attend Saturday’s Asian Games opening ceremony with more than a dozen other foreign dignitaries, in his latest bid to return to the world stage
The Syria outreach is China’s newest move to secure a foothold in the Middle East after brokering the restoration of the Saudi-Iran ties in March.
The Syrian leader landed in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou aboard an Air China plane. He had last visited China in 2004 to meet then-President Hu Jintao in what was the first visit by a Syrian head of state to Beijing since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1956.
Like Russia and Iran, China retained close ties with Syria while other countries isolated Assad over his brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in 2011, which led to a civil war and the killing of over half a million people, displaced millions more, and battered Syria’s infrastructure and industry.
Syria joined China’s trade and infrastructure project Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in January 2022 and was welcomed back into the Arab League in May, after over a decade.
After decades of getting Western support, the Arab world is reorganizing its allies in an emerging multipolar world order. This is how China entered the Middle East as an ‘alternative’ to the West.
Because of years of civil war and strife, the Syrian economy was crippled, forcing Assad to look out for financial support.
But China is wary of investing in Syria. Any Chinese or other investment in Syria risks entangling the investor in the US sanctions under the 2020 Caesar Act that can freeze the assets of anyone financially dealing with Syria.
Although China pledged USD 2 billion in investments in Syria in 2017, but the funds had “yet to materialize.”
The Saudi-Iran detente in March was followed by Syria’s return to the Arab fold at a summit in Saudi Arabia in May, ending over a decade of Damascus’ regional isolation.
With the Assad visit, China and Syria will upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership.
“In the face of an unstable and uncertain international environment, China is willing to continue to work with Syria in the interests of friendly cooperation and safeguarding international fairness and justice,” Xi said, according to Chinese state media.
The West tightened sanctions on Syria since the early days of a civil war that began in 2011 with a crackdown on protests and went on to kill hundreds of thousands of people and displace millions. Assad’s government, backed by Russia and Iran, now controls most territory and has reestablished ties in recent years with Arab neighbors that once backed his opponents.
