In China, Syria’s Assad gets political fanfare, but no funding commitments

News Snapshot:

September 25, 2023 The announcement of the Sino-Syrian strategic partnership last week, the second most comprehensive diplomatic partnership in China’s foreign policy system, sent a political message to the West. It also was a welcome boost to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as his government emerges from isolation on the world stage. But looking more broadly at Assad's four-day visit to China — the first since 2004 — this new step in Sino-Syrian relations is worth little more than the paper it was written on. What is happening inside the wartorn Middle Eastern country tells a different story: the announcement comes...