Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in China, seeks to overcome more than a decade of diplomatic isolation

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has landed in Hangzhou, east China, for his first visit to the Asian country since 2004, as he seeks to overcome more than a decade of diplomatic isolation due to Western sanctions.

Assad boarded an Air China jet in heavy fog, which Chinese state media said “added to the atmosphere of mystery,” referring to the fact that the Syrian leader has seldom been seen outside his nation since the start of a civil conflict that has killed over 500,000 people.

He is scheduled to attend the Asian Games opening ceremony alongside more than a dozen international dignitaries before heading a group to a series of engagements in multiple Chinese cities, including a summit with President Xi Jinping.

Being seen with China’s president at a regional event could provide credibility to Syria’s drive to gradually re-enter the global scene, which has seen the country join China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2022 and be readmitted to the 22-nation Arab League in May.

Assad’s last trip to China was in 2004 to meet with then-President Hu Jintao. It was the first visit to China by a Syrian head of state since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1956.

China, like Syria’s primary allies Russia and Iran, maintained such connections even as other nations condemned Assad’s harsh assault on anti-government protests that started in 2011.

Sanctions have been placed on Assad by the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, but efforts to put multilateral sanctions on his regime have failed to get majority backing at the United Nations Security Council, which China and Russia are members of.

China has vetoed at least eight UN resolutions criticising Assad’s regime and aimed at ending the decade-long multifaceted conflict that has engulfed neighbours and international powers. China, unlike Iran and Russia, has not directly backed the regime’s efforts to retake control of the nation.

UN-commissioned investigators have said Russian bombing and Iran-backed militias are responsible for the bulk of the more than 200,000 civilian deaths recorded since the war began, which has triggered refugee and drug smuggling crises that the Arab League is pushing Damascus to resolve.

Syria has strategic importance for China given it sits between Iraq, where around 10 per cent of China’s oil comes from, Turkey, which marks the end of economic corridors stretching across Asia into Europe, and Jordan, which often mediates disputes in the region.