China's growing role in the regional normalisation of Syria's Assad
THE NEW ARAB
…Guy Burton, adjunct professor at the Brussels School of Governance, acknowledges there have been changes in China’s stance towards Syria, but he doesn’t believe “they are significant enough to make the kind of investment and stimulate sufficient economic activity to prove transformative”.
“The World Bank's 2017 estimate for the loss of Syria’s GDP between 2010-16 was $226 billion, which was double the size of its GDP in 2010,” Burton told The New Arab. “That number also goes up every year, so the estimate of rebuilding Syria is now around $250-400 billion.”
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“At the same time, the relationship between Assad and the West is antagonistic. So, he's not exactly looking for the West’s assistance, which puts China in a stronger position. But again, that depends a lot on whether Beijing wants to get involved and even if it chose to do so, it's not going to be plain sailing,” Burton added.
