Wakhan Corridor -- China's back door to Afghanistan

Back in June 2009, China mulled the request to open the Wakhan Corridor to serve as an alternative supply route to help forces battling the Taliban. At the same time, the latest Google Earth images show this new road, supply depots, and constructed guard posts. This corridor has been closed for over 100 years and was considered inaccessible as recent as 2007. The decision to now open the corridor is no longer a logistical issue.

Here is the link to my previous blog entry regarding the Wakhan Corridor

China mulls Afghan border request

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8097933.stm




Chinese and Afghan foreign ministry officials may open up a strategically important and scenic border area, officials say after a meeting.

The two sides met in Beijing this week to discuss the 76km (47 mile) border that divides the two countries, known as the Wakhan Corridor.

Afghanistan wants the border to be opened as an alternative supply route to help forces battling the Taliban.

The Chinese say they will "earnestly study" the proposal.

'Positive attitude'

"The (terrorism) solution must be comprehensive, regional and international," Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said in a speech earlier this week.

He said it was his "personal wish" to open the Wakhan Corridor.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his country would adopt "an earnest and positive attitude" on co-operation with Afghanistan "on transport, trade and economy".

"We're willing to earnestly study his suggestions," he said.

The Wakhan Corridor is about 210km long (130 miles) long.

Correspondents say that the idea of using it as an alternative route for supplying US and Nato forces in Afghanistan has been floated before.

They say the call by Afghanistan is likely to fall on deaf ears in China, which fiercely resists any initiatives viewed as undermining its national sovereignty.

Obama to press China on Afghanistan

With "possible" options including greater humanitarian assistance and sending military police to help train the Afghan police force.

Odd that China has already begun to provide training and humanitarian assistance (here) (here).

Obama to press China on Afghanistan

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f2bf2d0-cf78-11de-b876-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html

By Geoff Dyer in Beijing

Published: November 12 2009 10:46 | Last updated: November 12 2009 11:22

As US President Barack Obama prepares to make a final decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, his visit to Beijing next week will be an opportunity to press China to become more involved in the conflict.

Since the start of the year, the Obama administration has been quietly encouraging Beijing to become much more engaged in Afghanistan, according to diplomats, officials and academics briefed on the discussions, with possible options including greater humanitarian assistance and sending military police to help train the Afghan police force.

Although China is extremely reluctant to play any military role in Afghanistan, with which it shares a short border, the increased US lobbying comes at a time of growing realisation in Beijing that its interests would be considerably damaged by a US withdrawal and Taliban victory.

Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, visited Beijing in April to discuss the two countries with the Chinese and there have been a string of contacts since then. Some of Mr Holbrooke’s aides were in Beijing on Thursday, ahead of Mr Obama’s arrival in China on Sunday night.

The Obama administration, which has said it wants China to be a partner on many global issues, had hoped to organise an “inter-agency” meeting for Chinese officials in Washington before the president’s visit, where they would be briefed by all the different US government departments involved in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However this has yet to take place. The US also hopes Beijing will occasionally use its influence with Pakistan, a close ally, towards shared strategic goals.

“This is a golden opportunity for China to be seen by the west to be on the same side,” said David Shambaugh, a China expert at George Washington University, who said China should consider both civilian assistance, such as building infrastructure, and police training. “It is a test case of whether China will become a real partner.”

However, he acknowledged the high level of resistance, especially among the Chinese military, where there is deep scepticism about the conflict. He recalled a visit to China’s National Defence University in 2001 on the day US military operations began in Afghanistan when one Chinese general warned loudly: “You will never get out.”

Although some parts of the Chinese military and political elite are not unhappy to see the US struggling in Afghanistan, Beijing has grown increasingly concerned about the conflict because of fears that a strong Taliban will help radicalise its own Muslim population and that Pakistan is being progressively weakened.

Chinese companies have invested $3.5bn in a copper mine in Afghanistan, while Beijing is also wary of greater Indian involvement in the country.

However, the summer riots in Xinjiang have made Beijing more cautious about greater public involvement in Afghanistan, officials say, for fear that China will become a major terrorist target. Beijing also wants to learn more about Mr Obama’s real plans for the region.

“The expectations in the US that China will send armed police to Afghanistan, that is too much for China,” says Jin Canrong, professor of international relations at Renmin University. “It is possible that China will send more money, but armed men, no way.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

A follow up to my earlier blog entry of “Will China play a more “direct” role in both the Pakistan and Afghanistan conflicts”

Photo of the Wakhan Corridor from the PLA Daily.


A follow up to my earlier blog entry of “Will China play a more “direct” role in both the Pakistan and Afghanistan conflicts”

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2009/06/will-china-play-more-direct-role-in.html

There was speculation that China would play a “more active role” in supporting NATO's attempt to pacify Afghanistan, especially after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Chinese forces could join the military coalition in Afghanistan during a speech to Council on Foreign Relations (here)

It was followed shortly by NATO’s statement that we “may ask China to provide support for the war effort in Afghanistan, including possibly opening a supply link for alliance forces” (here) However, those two diplomatic overtures met with the standard Chinese government statement of “placing the decision under consideration” and in June 2008, Afghanistan's foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, joined the call for China to open the Wakhan Corridor to be used as a supply route for NATO’s ongoing operation. (here)

Since I blogged “Will China play a more 'direct' role in both Pakistan and Afghanistan conflicts," there were no major developments as China seemed to follow its foreign policy doctrine of "noninterference in others internal affairs" strictly. Recently, the Chinese media has started to focus on the developments in Central Asia. Perhaps it is due to the recent Xinjing riot as both the Global Times (here) and the PLA Daily (here) wrote articles about the Wakhan Corridor to generate interest in that region. Today, photos of PAP (People's Armed Police) personnel training Afghan police surfaced on Chinese internet (as opposed to the "other" internet). Oddly enough, there is nothing in the media that has covered this important shift.