With the sudden collapse of the al-Assad regime in Syria, analysts and fighters in other long running civil wars are wondering whether their country could be next.
Bashar al-Assad was an ally of both Iran and Russia, Beijing's key partners. Here is how his fall is being seen in China.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi told his Egyptian counterpart on Friday that Beijing is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Syria, as the two top diplomats met in the Chinese capital. "The two sides are deeply concerned about the current situation in Syria and call for respect for Syria's sovereignty,
China’s leadership is not happy about the fall of Assad. But compared to Russia and Iran, Beijing had far less at stake.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for international efforts to prevent Syria from descending into further division and another refugee crisis, responding on Friday for the first time to the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad's Beijing-friendly regime last week.
The TIP has been based in Syria for more than a decade, with its members fleeing to the Middle East to escape China’s severe oppression of the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority group. Its fighters joined Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the rebel offensive, in a thrust out of the north-west of Syria.
However, with the downfall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and the catastrophic loss of Hamas and Hezbollah during its war against Israel, Tehran faces mounting geopolitical threats with splintered regional proxies.
As well as calling on authorities in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia to guard against terror threats, experts also warned that the rebel takeover in Syria should be “a real cause for concern” for China.
A top Chinese envoy has warned Damascus's new government not to support terrorism as a Syria-based Islamic militant group sent messages to Muslims in China's Xinjiang region, urging them to wage attacks.
Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since February, 2021, when a military junta overthrew the country’s semi-democratic government in a coup
Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a Uyghur militant group based in Syria, declares its intent to fight China after aiding the Syrian rebel offensive
Russia has accelerated its military withdrawal from Syria and suspended a grain deal with the country over concerns about the rebel-led government.