They've got the guns but we've got the numbers...
China has reportedly started to build a training camp in Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, a narrow area that separates Tajikistan from Pakistan, in efforts to improve counterterrorism efforts in the war-torn country.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told the
South China Morning Post for
an article published Tuesday that once the base is completed, Beijing will dispatch to it hundreds of troops, amounting to at least one battalion. A battalion could consists of more than 500 soldiers, according to the
Post.
"Construction of the base has started, and China will send at least one battalion of troops, along with weapons and equipment, to be stationed there and provide training to their Afghan counterparts," one source told the publication.
The official later noted that a completion date for the base was not yet determined and that the base would likely have a slightly different role than that of
Beijing's first overseas military base in the East African nation of Djibouti.
Following the 2017 opening of the Djibouti base, Chinese state-owned outlet Xinhua reported that the base was "meant for supply missions" and was by no means a "military outpost built to boost the country's military presence and play deterrent roles in the region."
"The Djibouti base has nothing to do with an arms race or military expansion, and China has no intention of turning the logistics center into a military foothold," the outlet added.
Song Zhongping, a military analyst based in Hong Kong, says the new base could serve as a training base to help "strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation and military exchanges between Beijing and Kabul."
"Afghanistan is very weak on counterterrorism," Song told the Post. "And the authorities there are worried about a Taliban resurgence, but they can't do anything about it without help from the US, China and other countries."
The
Post's latest update on the Afghan base comes months after
Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Defense Ministry, shot down suggestions in January
that a base was going to be built in Badakhshan after defense ministers from China and Afghanistan agreed in 2017 to work on fighting terrorism together.
"The so-called issue that China is building a military base in Afghanistan is groundless," Wu said.The ministry had also previously denied reports that Chinese military vehicles, identified as Dongfeng EQ 2050s, were conducting counterterror patrols in Afghanistan. According to the
Military Times, reports of Beijing's alleged joint mission with Afghan troops first surfaced in 2016 after India's Wion News published images showing said vehicles in Little Pamir in northeastern Afghanistan.
Comment: Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has
dismissed this latest report:
"After looking into it, the relevant report is not true," she told a daily news briefing.
"Since the construction and training, this situation, it doesn't exist - it's not true. So anything related naturally is not true," Hua added, dismissing the assertion about China eventually sending its own soldiers.
The rumors are probably not groundless, however. An important meeting was scheduled to take place in Moscow next week, where Taliban representatives agreed in principle to meet with Afghan govt reps. The US, China, Pakistan, India, and Iran were also invited to attend. The US of course rejected this 'interference' out of hand, but it's interesting that
Kabul only pulled out when 'the Taliban' (almost certainly counter-insurgency factions of it working indirectly for the US) upped its terror attacks across the country.
Whatever its state of concrete progress, there is clearly impetus coming from Moscow and Beijing to fix the multi-decade blight on the world that is US 'mismanagement of Afghanistan'. The US can only delay that country's long-term political resolution via 'managed terrorism' for so long.
Comment: Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has dismissed this latest report: The rumors are probably not groundless, however. An important meeting was scheduled to take place in Moscow next week, where Taliban representatives agreed in principle to meet with Afghan govt reps. The US, China, Pakistan, India, and Iran were also invited to attend. The US of course rejected this 'interference' out of hand, but it's interesting that Kabul only pulled out when 'the Taliban' (almost certainly counter-insurgency factions of it working indirectly for the US) upped its terror attacks across the country.
Whatever its state of concrete progress, there is clearly impetus coming from Moscow and Beijing to fix the multi-decade blight on the world that is US 'mismanagement of Afghanistan'. The US can only delay that country's long-term political resolution via 'managed terrorism' for so long.