China pushing for Syria cease-fire

Beijing dispatches second envoy to Damascus for talks with Assad regime

BEIJING (AP) — China says it will send another envoy to Syria in a bid to convince the Assad regime of the need for a cease-fire, and to emphasize that it remains against outside intervention.

The Foreign Ministry said Monday that former ambassador to Syria Li Huaqing would visit Damascus on Tuesday and Wednesday.

That announcement followed the release Sunday of a Chinese proposal calling for an immediate cease-fire in Syria and talks by all parties but standing firm against any intervention by outside forces.

China has being roundly criticized by the US and others for joining Russia in vetoing a UN resolution on ending Syria’s ongoing violence. That plan similarly called for an end to hostilities, but Beijing feared it would open the door to intervention against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian government, as it had in Libya.