China's Communist party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said in a front page commentary that the west's support of the opposition and its demands for Assad to step down could provoke a "large-scale civil war" that might demand foreign intervention.

China and Russia angered the west and Arab states this month by blocking a draft United Nations security council resolution that backed an Arab plan demanding Assad step aside.

If the security council had passed the resolution backing the Arab League, that would only have led to more violence, Qu King, whom the newspaper identified as a foreign affairs expert, wrote in the article.

"If western countries continue to fully support Syria's opposition, then in the end a large-scale civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility of foreign armed intervention," Qu wrote.

China has sent envoys to the region, stung by western criticism that by vetoing the resolutions at the U.N. it was allowing the violence to increase. China and Russia also voted against a non-binding U.N. General Assembly resolution to back the Arab plan last week.