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China has now joined Russia in twice rejecting draft UN Security Council resolutions that would seek to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to end its brutal repression of the anti-regime protesters. Interestingly, China, unlike Russia, is motivated primarily by principles rather than concrete strategic and economic interests in Syria. And China, unlike Russia, seems more open to changing its position.

For the past two decades, PRC leaders have typically opposed foreign military interventions seeking to change a regime. For example, they have regularly objected to U.S. and NATO military operations in the Middle East. But they also showed their lack of enthusiasm for Russia’s August 2008 military intervention by refusing to recognize the resulting independence...