*Kabul: *Worried about terrorists sneaking into a restive Chinese regionfrom war-torn Afghanistan, Beijing is in talks with Kabul over theconstruction of a military base, Afghan officials say, as it seeks to shoreup its fragile neighbour.
The army camp will be built in Afghanistan’s remote and mountainous WakhanCorridor, where witnesses have reported seeing Chinese and Afghan troops onjoint patrols.
The freezing, barren panhandle of land — bordering China’s tense Xinjiangregion — is so cut off from the rest of Afghanistan that many inhabitantsare unaware of the Afghan conflict, scraping out harsh but peaceful lives.
However they retain strong links with neighbours in Xinjiang, and with sofew travellers in the region local interest in the Chinese visitors hasbeen high, residents told AFP on a recent visit there.
China’s involvement in the base comes as President Xi Jinping seeks toextend Beijing’s economic and geopolitical clout.
The Chinese are pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure in SouthAsia. With Afghanistan’s potential to destabilise the region, analysts saidany moves there would be viewed through the prism of security.
Beijing fears that exiled Uighur members of the East Turkestan IslamicMovement (ETIM) are passing through the Wakhan into Xinjiang to carry outattacks.
It also worries that Islamic State group terrorists fleeing Iraq and Syriacould cross Central Asia and Xinjiang to reach Afghanistan, or use theWakhan to enter China, analysts say.
Afghan and Chinese officials discussed the plan in December in Beijing, butdetails are still being clarified, Afghan defence ministry deputy spokesmanMohammad Radmanesh said.
“We are going to build it (the base) but the Chinese government hascommitted to help the division financially, provide equipment and train theAfghan soldiers,” he told AFP recently.
A senior Chinese embassy official in Kabul would only say Beijing isinvolved in “capacity-building” in Afghanistan.
NATO’s US-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan declined to comment.But US officials have previously welcomed China’s role in Afghanistan,noting they share the same security concerns.
*Joint patrols*
Members of the Kyrgyz ethnic minority in Wakhan told AFP in October theyhad been seeing Chinese and Afghan military patrols for months.
“The Chinese army first came here last summer and they were accompanied bythe Afghan army,” said Abdul Rashid, a Kyrgyz chief, adding that he hadseen vehicles flying Chinese flags.
The Afghan army arrived days earlier “and told us that the Chinese armywould be coming here”, he said, adding: “We were strictly told not to gonear them or talk to them and not to take any photos.”
Rashid’s account was confirmed by other Kyrgyz, including another chief JoBoi, who said the Chinese military spent almost a year in Wakhan beforeleaving in March 2017.
Both Chinese and Afghan officials deny the claims, with China’s defenceministry telling AFP that the “Chinese army is not engaged in any militaryoperation in the Wakhan Corridor”.
With little access to the corridor, Kabul provides almost no services tothose who live there — but the Chinese, Boi said, have been bringing “alot of food and warm clothes”.
“They are very good people, very kind,” he told AFP.
After their March visit, he said, they returned in June for roughly amonth. “Since then they come every month… to distribute food.”
*Economic interests*
China fears terrorism could threaten its growing economic interests in theregion, Ahmad Bilal Khalil, a researcher at the Kabul-based Center forStrategic and Regional Studies, told AFP.
“They need to have a secure Afghanistan,” he said, estimating Beijing hadprovided Kabul with more than $70 million in military aid in the past threeyears.
It recently flagged the possibility of including Afghanistan in the$54-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that passes throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“The anti-terrorism motivation is an important one but it’s not asimportant as the bigger move to boost the CPEC,” said Willy Lam, apolitical analyst in Hong Kong.
Kabul is also keen for Beijing to have a “more active role”, Andrew Small,author of The China-Pakistan Axis, told AFP.
It hopes China will use its “special relationship” with Islamabad toencourage the Pakistani military, who wield significant influence overAfghanistan’s insurgents, to “force the Taliban into peace talks”, Smallsaid.
“In the end China has vastly greater financial power than anyone else. Sohaving them engaged… may end up being critical to the country’s basiceconomic viability,” he said. – AFP