BEIJING/HONG KONG ¨C Just over a year ago, China gave Bashar 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, Chinese 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.
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