China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday pronounced the utterly corrupt “re-election” of brutal Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to be a “U.S. failure in Mideast intervention” and a triumph for China’s “policy of non-intervention for regional stability.”
The Global Times argued that Assad pulling 95 percent of the vote in a blatantly rigged election proves China is wise for ignoring human rights issues and doing business with whoever holds the power in hellhole states, while America gets nowhere by dwelling on things like tyranny, genocide, corruption, and weapons of mass destruction.
The Global Times made this argument by worshipfully quoting from the letter of congratulations Chinese dictator Xi Jinping sent to Assad on Monday:
In his message, Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Syria relations, and stands ready to work with Assad to take the 65th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties this year as an opportunity to strive for greater achievements in China-Syria relations, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Xi said China firmly supports Syria in safeguarding its national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and will provide as much assistance as its capacity allows for Syria in fighting the COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic, revitalizing its economy and improving the people’s well-being, so as to continuously lift China-Syria cooperation to new levels.
Chinese analysts were trotted out to scoff at the U.S., U.K., and Europe for challenging the legitimacy of Assad’s election to a fourth term, and to sneer at the U.S. for a failed and half-hearted effort at regime change during the Obama administration:
Since the anti-government protests and rebellions known as “Arab Spring” spread in Syria about a decade ago, the US used the opportunity to prop up the opposition and wage war against the Syrian government. With the Assad government’s resistance and the help of Russia and Iran, Assad held his ground, and now the US-backed opposition in Syria has been all but wiped out.
Both the willingness and capability of the current US government to militarily interfere in Syria are limited, but it is expected that Washington, as a hegemonic power, will continue to suppress Damascus diplomatically and economically, some analysts said.
According to the Global Times, Assad’s perseverance — with help from fellow brutal autocracies in Russia and Iran — proved the “correctness” of China’s decision to keep “normal diplomatic relations” with the Assad regime and fully respect its “sovereignty.”
China’s triumphalism on Syria expresses a geopolitical strategy that involves pushing back hard against moral judgments from the Western world, denouncing human rights concerns as a scam designed by hegemonic Westerners to keep developing nations under their thumbs, and building a new world order in which China’s allies and clients never have to worry about regime change operations or sanctions against them for crimes against humanity.
The message to others like Assad is that Beijing is eager to do business with them and will never criticize any measures they might take to remain in power. Indeed, one of China’s most successful industries is exporting the tools of high-tech repression and surveillance to lesser authoritarian regimes.
In a February 2020 analysis, the Middle East Institute (MEI) saw China playing a “long game” in Syria, hoping not just for a slice of Syrian reconstruction business as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but for a new theater where it could undermine Western geopolitical strategy and demonstrate the post-World War II international order is dead.
China also has terrorism concerns it feels it can best address by cultivating relationships with ruthless Middle Eastern rulers like Assad, such as militant Uyghurs returning home to China’s Xinjiang province with battlefield experience after fighting for the Islamic State, the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, or other Syrian jihadist factions.
“From the Chinese perspective, the return of these militant jihadist Uighurs to Xinjiang following their time fighting with ISIS in Syria would be a nightmare scenario. As Beijing sees it, and as Chinese leaders are trying to convince their Western counterparts, the stabilization of Syria serves the global community’s security interests — and that is, at least for now, only a realistic possibility if Assad remains in power,” MEI judged.
The East Asia Forum likewise assessed in May 2021 that China desires access to Syria’s ports for BRI, and it needs Syria to be stabilized even further before it can risk big money in that war-torn country. In practical terms, that means cementing Assad in power and crushing what remains of resistance to his rule, since no other faction in Syria would make a plausible BRI partner, or could play the same role as Assad in China’s growing influence over the Middle East.
“Beijing has shielded the regime on 10 occasions in the UN Security Council through its veto power and sought to provide legitimacy to Assad — all the while keeping at an arm’s length from the conflict and advocating a political solution based on mediation and dialogue,” the East Asia Forum noted. Xi Jinping’s warm congratulations to Assad could mark the beginning of Beijing moving closer than arm’s length from Damascus.
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