HANGZHOU: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday (Sep 21) began his first official trip to China in almost two decades, state media reported, where he will ask a long-time ally for financial support to help rebuild his devastated country.
China becomes one of only a handful of countries outside the Middle East that Assad has visited since the 2011 start of a war that has since killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more and battered Syria’s infrastructure and industry.
Assad also becomes the latest in a string of leaders ostracised by the West to be feted by Beijing, with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, as well as top Russian officials, all visiting this year.
He arrived on Thursday in the eastern city of Hangzhou, where he will attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games on Saturday.
The Syrian president’s Air China plane was greeted on the tarmac by jubilant music and rows of performers wearing colourful costumes, as Chinese and Syrian flags flapped in the sky, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
According to the Syrian presidency, he will also visit Beijing.
The visit will be Assad’s first to China since 2004.
Beijing has long provided Damascus with diplomatic support, particularly at the United Nations Security Council where it is a permanent member.
Officials from both countries have also made visits over the years.
“This visit represents an important rupture in the diplomatic isolation and the political siege imposed on Syria,” Damascus-based political scientist Oussama Dannoura told AFP.
“China has been breaking Western taboos that seek to prevent a number of states from dealing with countries that Washington considers isolated,” he added.
Source: CNA
