Assad's fall in Syria exposes limits of China's Middle East diplomacy

10/12/2024 19:27

Just over a year ago, China gave Bashar al-Assad and his wife a warm welcome during their six-day visit to the country, offering the former Syrian leader a rare break from years of international isolation since the start of a civil war in 2011.



As the couple attended the Asian Games, President Xi Jinping vowed to support Assad in "opposing external interference" and in Syria's rebuilding, while his wife Asma was feted in Chinese media.



But the abrupt end to the rule of the authoritarian leader so explicitly backed by Xi only last year has dealt a blow to China's diplomatic ambitions in the Middle East and exposed the limits of its strategy in the region, analysts say. A coalition of rebels seized Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday after a lightning offensive that toppled Assad's regime and ended his family's 50-year dynasty.