In the weeks since Moscow joined the fight in Syria, in the process lending Iran's ground troops a rather powerful hand in the form of airstrikes by the Russian air force juggernaut, there have been two questions on everyone's mind, i) how would Washington respond?, and ii) will China get involved? 

As for the first question, the US has responded in the only way they could given the situation the West and its allies got themselves into: with a confused message about how the US can't accept Russia's invite to coordinate efforts because somehow Moscow's involvement is going to create more terrorism. 

With regard to the China, early reports indicated that Beijing was indeed considering some manner of military "support." For instance, late last month the pro-Assad Al-Masdar news said the following:

On Tuesday morning, a Chinese naval vessel reportedly traveled through Egypt's Suez Canal to enter the Mediterranean Sea; its destination was not confirmed.

However, according to a senior officer in the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) that is stationed inside the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, Chinese military personnel and aerial assets are scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks (6 weeks) to the port-city of Tartous – he could not provide any more detail.

Three days later, Pravda reported that "according to Russian Senator Igor Morozov, Beijing has taken decision to take part in combating IS and sent its vessels to the Syrian coast."

"It is known, that China has joined our military operation in Syria, the Chinese cruiser has already entered the Mediterranean, aircraft carrier follows it," Morozov allegedly said.

Needless to say, if China were to join Russia and Iran in support of Assad in military operations against anti-regime elements, it would be a further embarrassment for Washington which is keen to pretend that it can counter what's been pitched as military aggression on Beijing's part in the South China. That is, were China to go into Syria while the US stood by and watched, it would send a message to Washington's regional allies in the South Pacific that other than promising to send some ships to sail around the Spratlys, there's really not much the Pentagon can or at least is willing, to do.