China’s top Communist party newspaper has defended Beijing’s rejection of a UN resolution calling for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to resign. The People’s Daily said western campaigns in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq showed the error of forced regime change.
The commentary is China’s clearest defence of its decision to join Russia on Saturday in vetoing a draft United Nations resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Assad to quit after months of bloodshed.
The commentary suggested that Chinese distrust of western intervention lay behind the veto, which was described as a “travesty” by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.
“The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate and numbers of civilian casualties keep rising. Vetoing the draft security council resolution does not mean we are giving free rein to letting this heart-rending state of affairs continue,” said the paper, which echoes government thinking.
China, unlike its western critics, was acting “responsibly” for the sake of the Syrian people, it said. The author used the pen name Zhong Sheng, which can mean “voice of China” and is often used on articles giving Beijing’s position on foreign policy.
“Currently the situation in Syria is extremely complex. Simplistically supporting one side and suppressing the other might seem a helpful way of turning things around, but in fact it would be sowing fresh seeds of disaster.”
China’s vice-president, Xi Jinping, is visiting the US next week and the Syria veto could add to frictions. Xi is the Communist party’s likely next top leader.
Beijing and Washington have also sparred over Iran, which faces tightened western sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.
The People’s Daily commentary laid bare broader Chinese concerns about western-backed intervention in the Arab world and beyond. China is one of the five permanent UN security council members that hold the power to veto resolutions.
In March China abstained from a council vote that authorised western military intervention in Libya. That resolution became the basis for a Nato air campaign that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Beijing and Moscow regarded the campaign as going beyond the resolution.
“Libya offers a negative case study. Nato abused the security council resolution about establishing a no-fly zone and directly provided firepower assistance to one side in the Libyan war,” said the People’s Daily.
It cited Iraq and Afghanistan in its case against the Syria resolution. “[These] calamities of Iraq and Afghanistan should be ample to wipe clear the world’s eyes. Forceful prevention of a humanitarian disaster sounds filled with a sense of justice and responsibility.
“But are not the unstoppable attacks and explosions over a decade after regime change a humanitarian disaster?”
^THIS. Esp. when the regime change is the result of foreign intervention!
