Michael Clarke and Raffaello Pantucci
The National Interest - September 17, 2016
On August 14, Guan Youfei, a rear admiral in China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, visited
the Syrian capital of Damascus, escorted around the city under heavy
guard. Guan’s visit reportedly included meetings with senior military
officials and Russian officers, as well as pledges that the Chinese
military would provide medical training for Syrian medical staff. The
question is why China is increasing this engagement now.
Admiral Guan’s engagement contrasts with previous Chinese behavior
during the Syrian crisis. While China has been one of the few powers to
maintain an embassy in Damascus throughout the current crisis, Beijing’s
engagements have been fairly limited,
and mostly focused on attempts from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to insert itself into peace negotiations and occasional
expressions of concern around individual nationals who appear on the
battlefield (either as hostages or fighters). The approach has been
driven by a mix of motives, including Beijing’s long-standing principle
of “non-interference,” aversion to what China sees as largely
Western-led regime change in the guise of humanitarian intervention and a
Chinese desire to insulate its growing economic interests in the Middle East from the continuing consequences of the Arab Spring.
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