Assad's fall in Syria exposes limits of China's Middle East diplomacy
By Laurie Chen, James Pomfret, Antoni Slodkowski BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Just over a year ago, China gave Bashar al-Assad and his wife a warm welcome during their six-day visit to the country, offering the former Syrian leader a rare break from years of international isolation since the start of a civil war in 2011.