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Dragon Rising? China Seeks Closer Military Cooperation With Syria
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/dragon_rising_china_seeks_closer_militar
y_cooperation_with_syria_20160818/
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Posted on Aug 18, 2016
By Juan Cole(http://www.truthdig.com/staff/juan_cole) / Informed
Content(http://www.juancole.com/2016/08/dragon-military-cooperation.html)
The Arabic press is reporting
(http://www.youm7.com/story/2016/8/16/%D8%A8%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%
D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%89-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9
%89-%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8
A%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D9%88%D8%AB%D9%82-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7
/2845156) that a high Chinese official on a visit to Damascus has announced
that Beijing intends to strengthen its military relationship with the
current Syrian government. At the same time he affirmed that China would
avoid involvement in the civil war. Reuters broke the
story(http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-china-idUSKCN10
R10R ) in the West.
China has a long history of involvement in Syrian security affairs and is
already doing some training of the Syrian military. But Beijing now seems
intent on taking the relationship to the next level.
The news comes in the wake of reports that Russia is strengthening its own
military(http://www.juancole.com/2016/08/everything-russias-airbases.html ;)
ties with Iran and may be flying missions against fundamentalist rebels in
Syria from that country.
China and Russia both belong to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which
appears to see Iran and Syria as potential strategic assets in its rivalry
with the US and NATO. They feel as though NATO stole Libya from them, and
are determined to make a stand in Syria. The newspaper of the Chinese
military said(http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1001150.shtml) that
Russia's moves in Crimea and Syria should be studied by Chinese officers.
Iran has observer
status(http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/07/iran-shanghai-coope
ration-organization-sco-accession.html ) in the SCO.
The director of the Chinese Central Military Commission's Office for
International Military Cooperation, Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, made the
remarks after meeting with Fahad Jassim al-Freij, the Syrian Defense
Minister.
China's Global Times(http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1001150.shtml ;)
quoted Hua Liming, former Chinese Ambassador to Iran, as saying that
"China's position on the Syrian crisis will not change, that is, [it will]
allow the Syrians to decide their country's destiny . . . Intervention from
outside can only enlarge the crisis, so China will maintain the relationship
with the government and encourage negotiations between different parties."
The same newspaper said that "Observers said China is worried about the
terrorists' influence on religious extremists in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region."
That is, China's interest in increasing its training of and support for the
Syrian Arab Army of the al-Assad regime stems in part from fear of the
hundreds of Uyghurs who have gone to join Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) or to follow
the al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani, leader of the Army of Syrian
Conquest. They are apprehensive that these fighters will return to
Xianjiang in northwest China and spread radicalism. China has about 40
million Muslims. Many are Han Chinese. But in the northwest, about 12
million Turkic Uyghurs live. The government has relocated millions of Han
Chinese there to reinforce Beijing's control, in the face of a small
separatist movement. The Western intelligence agencies have been accused of
stirring up the Uyghurs, as well.
The Global Times also quoted a professor of Middle East Studies at Shanghai
International Studies University, Zhao Weiming, who suggested that the Syria
play is payback by Beijing for perceived US interference in the South China
Sea.
Professor Zhao further pointed out that China may see the Syrian civil war
as beginning to wind down, given the ceasefire agreement of spring-summer
2016 (and despite its recently unraveling). It might then be an opportune
time for China to put down a marker of influence in Syria without risking
getting involved in the civil war or in the Iran-Saudi rivalry.
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