\n China on Friday warned against \"further deterioration\" of the situation in Syria, just hours after a US air strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n The warning came as Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago, where the Chinese leader had just hours earlier extended an invitation to the billionaire politician to pay a state visit to China later this year, according to the official Xinhua news agency.\n<\/p>\n
\n China was \"concerned\" by the recent events in Syria, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing, adding: \"What is urgent now is to avoid further deterioration of the situation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We oppose use of chemical weapons by any country, organisation or individual in any circumstance, for any purpose,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The massive strike -- the first direct US action against President Bashar al-Assad's government and Trump's biggest military decision since taking office -- marked a dramatic escalation in American involvement in Syria's six-year civil war.\n<\/p>\n
\n Six people were killed and serious damage caused, according to the Syrian army.\n<\/p>\n
\n News of the air strike overshadowed a two-day tete-a-tete between the Chinese president and his US counterpart, which concludes Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The meeting is the first face-to-face encounter between the leaders of the world's two largest economic and military powers since a US election that featured frequent barbs at China's \"rape\" of the American economy.\n<\/p>\n
\n Shortly after his dinner with Xi, Trump announced the strike in a brief televised address delivered hours after the UN Security Council failed to agree on a probe into the suspected chemical attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the meetings, Trump agreed to visit China \"with pleasure\", saying he hoped to visit at an early date, according to Xinhua, citing officials.\n<\/p>\n
\n Trump had personally informed the Chinese head of state of the Syrian strike, a White House official told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, and consistently says the crisis needs a \"political solution\".\n<\/p>\n
\n But it has six times voted alongside Russia to veto UN Security Council measures aimed at addressing the conflict -- including one in 2014 seeking the investigation of war crimes in the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n Declaring it in America's vital national security interest to prevent the spread of chemical weapons, Trump accused Assad of a \"very barbaric attack\" in which \"even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The attack followed days in which images of dead children and victims suffering convulsions from the suspected sarin gas attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun shocked the world.\n<\/p>\n
\n Syria's regime has denied any use of chemical weapons and state media on Friday described the US strike as an \"act of aggression\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China on Friday warned against \"further deterioration\" of the situation in Syria, just hours after a US air strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical attack. The warning came as Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago, where the Chinese leader had just hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-32832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n