"China supports resolving the Syrian issue through political means. All parties should not give up efforts to use political ways to solve the crisis," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters here, deflecting questions over how China viewed US strikes in Syria which overshadowed Xi's first summit meeting with Trump in Florida.
Refraining from joining Russia which condemned the strikes as "aggression against a sovereign state and violation of international law", Hua, however, backed beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying the elected choice of Syrians should be respected.
She said China always opposes the use of chemical weapons by any country, denouncing chemical attacks in Syria on Tuesday in which 70 people were killed and scores injured, most of them civilians in Syria's northwestern Idlib province.
China in the past has maintained contacts with both the Syrian government and rebels, and has teamed up with Russia to veto any UN resolution proposals sponsored by the US and its allies to sanction the Assad government since the country's civil war broke out almost six years ago.
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State-run China Global Television Network said Trump informed Xi during their meeting in Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
In response to the chemical attacks, the US today struck the Syrian air base in Homs with 59 Tomahawk missiles.
China called on all the sides to prevent the deterioration of the situation in order to ensure the political solution in the Syria crisis, Hua said.
Chinese analysts however said the missile strikes may take the heat off the Trump administration to act tougher in talks with China, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Trump has accused China of manipulating its currency value to give its exporters an unfair advantage and of failing to do enough to rein in Pyongyang.