China has nothing to gain by going to the mat for Syria, they have the upper hand. Russia is in ascendance, they’ll posture, but that’s it. Iran has ignored us successfully for 30 years, so why change?
It seems there is a natural gas pipeline that needs to connect from resource rich Qatar to Turkey, to serve the E.U. Unfortunately Syria is in the way - and their natural gas rich Russian allies like it that way - keeps their gas on top in the E.U. So I suppose this all boils down to a natural resource power play. But really, who wants to play on this president’s team? Not me.
China has access to cheap Qatari natural gas to preserve. If the Qataris are allowed build their pipeline to Europe through MB Syria the Chinese will have to pay a premium for it.