Moscow would also not have succeeded where Washington has failed, at least because of two recent events (ignoring past failures from an older period): the rift with Turkey, today a major player in the Middle East; and a bias too pronounced in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, still rejected by the majority of opposition forces, as well as other Arab leaders, Saudi Arabia included. This makes Russia a powerful ally of Saudi Arabia's arch-nemesis, Iran, which has the same stance concerning Syria.

What becomes crystal clear from reading China's Arab Policy Paper is the fact that while presenting a roadmap for future Sino-Arab relations as seen from Beijing, we can understand the Chinese worldview, with emphasis on concepts such as "pragmatic cooperation," "dialogue between civilizations," "exchanges between different religions" and "harmony and tolerance," as well as the new initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative).

In fact, we may already be witnessing China's role evolving into that of a positive mediating force. When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Khonsari of Iran in New York City on December 17, 2015, he made some remarks about the Third Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the International Syria Support Group to be held the next day. In his view, although some progress had been made in previous meetings, missions such as the integration of oppositions and screening of terrorist organizations remained uncompleted. Thinking of the big picture, the Chinese side decided to participate in the meetings and was willing to--with an objective and an impartial stance--make constructive contributions to advancing political settlement of the Syrian issue.

On December 24, 2015, while receiving Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Beijing, Wang made the case for the first time of the Chinese position of a three-point adherence: First, to stick to the direction of politically resolving the Syrian issue; second, to insist that the future and destiny of Syria should be decided by its own people; and third, to adhere to the UN's role as a main mediator. Wang said that the three-point adherence constitutes an important part of the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 adopted on December 18 last year, which won approval of all its members and serves the interests of Syria and its people.