China Is Using Syria's Peace Process for Its Own Ends

China Is Using Syria's Peace Process for Its Own Ends

China’s more broad strategic initiatives lead to other international stakeholders voting in line with Beijing on debates on Syrian crisis.

China’s consensus building and growing role in Syrian peace talks puts the United States and Western actors in a uniquely disadvantageous position. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle would ideally charge all UN member states to respond to Syria’s inability to protect its civilians, but because China, Russia, and other non-Western states view R2P and Western intervention as focused on regime change rather than protecting civilians, the P5 is unable to agree on UN Security Council resolutions that condemn violence, much less respond to it.

A number of Western news sources have provided insight for how the United States can remain the leader in the Syrian peace process, ranging from calling international law “impotent parchment” to saying the U.S. has “good reasons for bombing Syria.” On both ends of the spectrum, the United States is put in a corner where it must act outside of the scope of the United Nations and international norms if it wants to play an active role in Syria. The United States has already been infringing on norms, but given the recent symposium and China’s growing influence in facilitating peace talks, Washington may up the ante and escalate its unilateral actions. If it is any indication, when Nikki Haley walked out of the UN Security Council meeting on May 15 regarding a resolution for investigating the violence against Palestinian protestors in Gaza as soon as the Palestinian ambassador began speaking, the United States may in fact be placing less stock in multilateralism.

If this is indeed the case and the United States increasingly oversteps international normative boundaries, there is a high likelihood that escalated divisiveness and proxy conflict arises. However, with Beijing’s growing consensus, rising position in peace talks, and longstanding adherence to international norms, China may just have more support than the United States on Syria.

Logan Pauley is a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow with the East Asia program at the Stimson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Image: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (L) speaks to China's ambassador to the U.N. Ma Zhaoxu before the United Nations Security Council vote for ceasefire to Syrian bombing in eastern Ghouta, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., February 24, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz