By James Holbrooks at undergroundreporter.org
Syria — According to state-run Chinese news outlet Xinhua, the Chinese military — citing remarks made by a high-ranking military official during a rare trip to Damascus — is seeking closer ties with war-torn Syria, offering to supply humanitarian aid and even train Syrian military personnel.
On Tuesday, the Director of the Office for Military Cooperation of China’s Central Military Commission, Guan Youfei, flew to Damascus to have discussions with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij, Xinhua says. Director Guan, speaking with Xinhua, noted historical ties between the two countries and highlighted the positive role China has played in seeking a resolution to the fighting in Syria.
Reuters points out that Xinhua, paraphrasing Guan’s words, states: “China’s and Syria’s militaries have a traditionally friendly relationship, and China’s military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation.”
China depends on the Middle East for oil imports, but in the past has tended to leave diplomacy to member nations of the U.N. Security Council — chiefly, the U.S., Britain, France, and Russia. However, China has inserted itself more deeply of late.
Writes Reuters:
“But China has been trying to get more involved, including sending envoys to help push for a diplomatic resolution to the violence there and hosting Syrian government and opposition figures.”
The news comes as Syrian government forces, backed by Russian airpower, have established a siege around Aleppo, the last remaining enemy stronghold. Syrian and Russian forces have established humanitariancorridors for which civilians and even rebel fighters can escape — and maintains daily ceasefires for them to do this. Given these developments, it appears the last stand of the rebels may be imminent.
As Underground Reporter has previously written:
“All evidence points to the fact that the Syrian government is attempting to give the rebels within Aleppo a chance to surrender without further bloodshed. The rebels, however, appear steadfast. It was recently reported that 7,000 fighters are headed toward Aleppo from the southwest.”
Interestingly — and, to be sure, concerningly — Xinhua noted that while Director Guan was in Damascus on Tuesday, he met with a Russian general; though the agency provided no further comment on the matter.
In April, China sent a special envoy to Syria in order to work toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The man sent to participate in the talks had previously “praised Russia’s military role in the war, and said the international community should work harder together to defeat terrorism in the region,” according to Reuters.
The prospect of Chinese involvement in Syria could prove troublesome to that very “international community.”While, thus far, China hasn’t demonstrated a desire to involve itself in the fighting directly, its presence will almost certainly escalate tensions between itself and the United States.
Remember, the U.S. and China are on the verge of all-out naval warfare in the South China Sea, with neither side willing to give an inch. Recall also that U.S.-led NATO is in Eastern Europe, along the border with Russia, conducting what many have called provocations in an attempt to elicit a response from the Russian military.
Now, with China’s presence in Syria — and on the side of Russian and Syrian forces, no less — the last remaining global superpower has injected itself in the most hotly-contested military conflict on the planet.
As Zero Hedge fittingly summarized:
“Which means that at this moment, every major world superpower is officially involved in the Syrian war, which has on various occasions been aptly called a powderkeg for what may be the next global military conflict — to be sure, all required players are now officially involved.”
This article (Syria Becomes World War Powderkeg as China Joins Russian Alliance With Assad) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to James Holbrooksand UndergroundReporter.org. If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article to [email protected]. Image credit: Flickr/Times Asi.
Please quit posting old new, post new new new plese
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The US’s meddling in both Russia and China’s business has created a relationship where no serious relationship existed before. The US’s flimsy excuses for making everything worse in the middle east don’t cover up their intent to dominate the region and profit from death of civilians and children.
You can’t seriously expect other powers to ignore the fact the US is trying to control oil and since the US has started wars in 23 countries since 1990, and that’s more than North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela have done combined, its time to get a grip on who wants war, continuously.
The term, “International community,” is deceptive, the international community is a collection of US lapdogs, it, in no way, represents the majority of the world population. Any journalist who uses that term is intentionally deceptive.
I love your statement.
You could see this coming. In October 2011 Susan Rice attempted to push a resolution through the U.N. demanding that Assad ” cease the use of force against civilians” and Assad step aside. China and Russia vetoed ( article41) with Brazil, India, Lebanon and South Africa abstaining from the vote in protest, expressing unease with the U.S. push against Assad. Susan Rice angrily walked out if the talks.
If China maintains an ‘expansion’ in Syria, any of the oil perfection will not deteriorate. China must ensure, expenses of SAA must be maintained. Russian forces must cover Chinese Military. US & other allies must work to keep a normal ‘ground balance’. Air superiority must be divided among themselves by ‘pre set’ deductions. This basic outline will bring a positive deviation of maximum 4.5%. This deviation will make ready an oil economy which can be utilized anytime. There will be no stretch on assets of OPEC. OPEC must keep a note on reselling of oil.