Kuala Lampur, May 12 -- China may project confidence through military modernization, technological breakthroughs and resilient export performance.

Yet beneath this image of strategic steadiness lies a quieter and more urgent reality: Beijing wants the war in West Asia to end as quickly as possible.

This is not because China lacks strategic patience. Nor is it because Beijing suddenly fears geopolitical competition.

Rather, the Chinese leadership understands that prolonged instability in West Asia threatens the very foundations of China's economic recovery.

The Chinese economy is already under pressure from slower growth, rising unemployment, weak domestic consumption and the lingering aftershocks of the property crisis.

The ongoing c...