China says Russia, US must avoid fighting proxy war in Syria

China's ruling Communist Party says the US and Russia must avoid fighting a proxy war in Syria, chiding both for having an outdated Cold War mindset.

The party's flagship People's Daily newspaper reiterated China's view in an editorial Tuesday that a negotiated political solution is the only way to end the conflict. It said that while the US and the former Soviet Union frequently used diplomatic, economic and military means to extend their influence in other nations, that thinking belonged to the last century.

It said the world can't afford to stand by and allow the conflict to broaden into a full-blown proxy war or to abandon the will to seek a political resolution and allow the Syrian humanitarian disaster to continue.