[T]his blacklist has long since superseded its original military-related purpose and is now Washington’s means of tracking and suppressing China’s top enterprises.
The shrinking of ambitions away from the Indian Ocean, as reflected in the reversion to the ‘Pacific Command’, suggests that the [U.S] is ceding the continent, including West Asia, to China.
The reconciliation culminated in Al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House last week, the first by a Syrian president, and the announcement that Syria had become the 90th member of the US-led Global Coalition Against Daesh.