While on his first trip to China in nearly two decades beginning on Sept. 21, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed agreements on launching a China-Syria strategic partnership, working together on industrialization, and collaborating on the Belt and Road Initiative.
Assad pointed to the astonishing rate of development China has achieved. “Nineteen years ago, we visited China,” he told CCTV on Sept. 29. “There are such large leaps that I can’t compare that time and now. At the time, it was said that China was called the world’s merchandise factory, but today, I can say that it is the factory of innovation and creativity.”
On the quality of cooperation he found with his Chinese counterpart, Assad explained that when Beijing “talks about partnership, it talks about a new principle, not about hegemony.”
Looking to Syria’s post-war future, Assad was optimistic: “If a rebuilding process occurs, Syria has a great future. I am not speaking from hopes or expectations. I am speaking based on the situation before the war. Syria’s growth was at its best before the war, close to seven percent, a very high percentage for a country with limited capabilities. We did not have debts. We were not a debtor country. We used to take a loan and repay it directly. We had a sufficient amount of wheat, we exported vegetables and fruits, and we were developing our industries. Therefore, I can confidently say that stopping the war and rebuilding Syria will make the country much better than before the war,” he said.
