Assad to Visit China for Bilateral Summit with Chinese Counterpart

The Syrian presidency announced in a statement today, Tuesday, that President Bashar al-Assad will travel to China this week to hold a bilateral summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The president and First Lady Asma al-Assad, along with a high-level delegation, will travel to China on Thursday for a series of meetings in Beijing and Changzhou. The statement noted that Presidents Assad and Xi will hold a Syria-China summit. The last time Assad visited China was in 2004 to meet with then-President Hu Jintao. That was the first visit by a Syrian president to China since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1956. Beijing, like Russia and Iran, which are key allies of Damascus, has maintained these relations even as other countries sidelined Assad due to his brutal campaign against anti-government protests that erupted in 2011. As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China has repeatedly used its veto power against resolutions concerning Syria, including several resolutions regarding the extension of cross-border aid deliveries to areas outside government control.