China's economic growth and increasing world influence has changed how they can act in regards to foreign policy. In the past, China could attempt to stay out of issues and involvement in far away places like Iraq last decade. China's president at the time, Jiang Zemin, said, "The Iraq problem is relatively far away from us. But I think, as I made clear in my discussion with President Bush just now, the important thing is that peace is to be valued most.” Instead of becoming entangled with random foreign issues, China focused on domestic growth and internal issues.
Now, given China's dependence on large amounts of oil and the extent to which they have officials in other countries, it is impossible not to get involved. China is projected to require 266 million tons of oil this year so it must be concerned with oil-producing regions. China also was forced to evacuate 35,000 officials from Libya last year after things fell apart last year.
With the recent events in Iran and the Middle East, China has been receiving pressure from many countries to adopt a hard policy on Iran. While countries like America, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are urging China to take a stand with them, with China's energy and commercial needs this could be detrimental to their economy. They are feeling a similar pressure about Syria as it grows more chaotic by the day. China's importance has become so large that they much speak out regardless of whether the involved countries are in a close proximity or not.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/02/china-and-world
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