China Is Set To Make A Killing On The Afghan War

[beijingwalker]

China Is Set To Make A Killing On The Afghan War
Michael Kelley | Jan. 28, 2013, 1:18 PM

China is positioning itself to tap Afghanistan's vast mineral resources as U.S.-led forces prepare to withdraw, Dennis Gray of The Associated Press reports.

U.S. and Afghan geological surveys have found unexploited mineral deposits between $1 trillion and $3 trillion across Afghanistan's rugged terrain. Chinese companies have already secured multiple multibillion dollar investment projects and have begun making moves to ensure the sites are safe enough.

"If you are able to see a more or less stable situation in Afghanistan ... China will be the natural beneficiary," Andrew Small, a China expert in the U.S., told AP. "China is the only actor who can foot the level of investment needed in Afghanistan to make it succeed and stick it out."

In September China's top security official visited Kabul — marking the first visit by a leading Chinese government figure in 46 years — and announced that China would train 300 Afghan police officers.

An October report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) stated that the Afghan government is currently headed toward corrupt elections and a subsequent collapse after NATO troops pull out in 2014.

Consequently, it makes sense that even the U.S. is encouraging Beijing to boost its investment Afghanistan and backs its participation in peace-seeking initiatives.

Last summer Beijing signed a strategic partnership with Afghanistan and has expressed willingness to leverage its close ties with Pakistan to help negotiate a peace agreement with the Taliban.

"They are rare among the actors in Afghanistan in that they are not seen as having been too close to any side of the conflict," Small said. "All sides are happy to see China's expanded role."

The payoff for China could be enormous, despite having provided little aid and no blood over the last decade.

In 2007 a Chinese government-owned company paid $3 billion to lease a 2,600-year-old Buddhist site for 30 years and plans to extract over $100 billion worth of copper from the area.

In December 2011 China became the first foreign country in decades to sign a oil exploration deal in Afghanistan when it inked a $7 billion pact.

Gray notes that Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry announced preliminary talks to construct a direct road link to China across the remote 47-mile border between the two countries.

The Chinese are also eyeing untapped lithium deposits as well as projects involving hydropower, agriculture and construction.

Wakhan Corridor

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

China needs to develop the north west part of the country, make more economy cooperation with pakistan, Afghanistan and central Asia Nations will increase the prosperity for all of us (win-win)

 

[KRAIT]

China needs to develop the north west part of the country, make more economy cooperation with pakistan, Afghanistan and central Asia Nations will increase the prosperity for all of us (win-win)

Buddy, you might be inviting terrorists in your own country. Just use other nations and pay them. No need to get hands dirty.

 

[OrionHunter]

First the erstwhile Soviet Union got kicked out. Then it was the turn of the US of A to get the hell out of Afghanistan. And now the next to face the wrath of the Afghans seems to be China which is hell bent on exploiting Afghanistan's resources. They will meet the same fate. If the super powers couldn't hold their own against the Afghans (who hate outsiders exploiting them for their own ends), what chance does China have? Nix. Nada. Zilch!

Hasn't the Han dynasty learnt any lessons? Will they ever will?

 

[beijingwalker]

Wakhan corridor. Chinese tunnel under Pamir skirting J&K, an outflanking move? – VK Singh
Posted on June 9, 2012 by odishakhabara

- ‘Outflanking move’ near Afghan border with interests for India: Ex-chief

SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, June 4: China is opening its narrow border with Afghanistan with roads and probably a tunnel under the Pamir ranges skirting Jammu and Kashmir with strategic implications for India, former army chief Gen. V.K. Singh has told The Telegraph.

“It is an outflanking move,” the general who retired last Thursday said. “India risks losing the influence it has in Afghanistan because of a China-Pakistan link that is getting stronger and is seen in evidence here,” he said.

Since retirement four days ago, the general has said he was giving top priority to writing his PhD thesis on “Fundamentalism in Afghanistan and the Geo Strategic Significance of the Wakhan Corridor”.

Singh registered as a PhD candidate as army chief in 2010 with the department of defence and military sciences of Bhopal’s Barkatullah University.

The Chinese connection to Afghanistan, he says, is through the Wakhan Corridor that skirts the northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir, territory that India claims but is under Pakistani occupation. But for ***, India would have had direct access to Afghanistan through the Wakhan Corridor.

India does not have transit rights to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Most of its shipping to Afghanistan is done through the Iranian port of Chabahar.

“China’s objective is to increase connectivity with Afghanistan where it already has considerable presence along with India in development and other projects,” the general said.

“This connectivity would be physical. And it is interested in this comparatively quieter area (the Wakhan Corridor) through which it would facilitate the exploitation of natural resources in Afghanistan,” he said.

As chief, the general red-flagged the presence of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers, mostly engineers, in ****************** Kashmir. The building of the Karakoram highway abutting the Siachen glacier to its northeast through Shaksgam valley in Aksai Chin — India-claimed territory that Pakistan has ceded to China — is also a strategic concern of the Indian Army.

A “panhandle” of territory in Afghanistan’s extreme northeast, the Wakhan Corridor or Wakhan Tract is at most 220km long and 64km at its widest. It separates Tajikistan (to its north) with *** (to its south). At its eastern extremity, it has only a 76km-long border (half the distance between Calcutta and Kharagpur) over high mountains at the top of which is the 16,100-feet Wakhjir pass that has no road through it.

Despite being adjoining countries, Afghanistan and China do not have a border crossing since the Wakhjir pass was shut after Mao Tse Tung’s communist forces took over China in 1949.

The Wakhan with the headwaters of the Amu Darya (Oxus river) borders Xinjiang province’s Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County that has a Muslim majority. This is the area popularly known as the “Pamir Knot”.

Through the wars that have ravaged Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion (1979), the sparsely populated Wakhan has been largely peaceful.

To its west, the Wakhan emanates from the northern parts of Afghanistan where India has counted on a largely Afghan Tajik population whose leader was Ahmed Shah Masood before he was assassinated in 2001, two days before 9/11.

Singh said that in the course of his research, he has found evidence of military engineering activity on the Chinese side of the border. On the Afghan side, the nearest roadhead is close to 100km from the Wakhjir pass.

The former army chief was still researching his topic and did not want to go into the evidence behind his findings. It would be safe to assume, however, that he would utilise considerable technical, human and academic resources.

The Wakhan Corridor was a creation of “The Great Game” when Britain and Russia competed for strategic space. It roughly defined the border between British India and the Russian Empire in the late 19th century.

The Wakhjir pass itself remains closed for nearly half the year. A tunnel under the mountains would be an engineering feat — rivalling the kind that China has demonstrated with its railway line through Tibet — that would ensure all-weather access.

In December 2009, the US was reported in the Chinese media to have requested Beijing to allow access from its territory to the Wakhan Corridor (and Afghanistan). The US wanted to use the route as an alternative supply line for Nato forces because of an increase in attacks on the convoys in Pakistan. So far such access, if any, has not been visible.

Singh’s suspicion that such a tunnel was being built by the Chinese boosts the “garland of pearls” strategy — that China is surrounding India with bases and logistics centres — stretching from naval outposts in littoral countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, to ports like Gwadar in Pakistan and Hangyyi in Myanmar to the high Himalayas north of Kashmir.

https://odiasamachar.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/wakhan-corridor-chinese-tunnel-under-pamir-skirting-jk-an-outflanking-move-vk-singh-inbox-x/

 

[conworldus]

First the erstwhile Soviet Union got kicked out. Then it was the turn of the US of A to get the hell out of Afghanistan. And now the next to face the wrath of the Afghans seems to be China which is hell bent on exploiting Afghanistan's resources. They will meet the same fate. If the super powers couldn't hold their own against the Afghans (who hate outsiders exploiting them for their own ends), what chance does China have? Nix. Nada. Zilch!

Hasn't the Han dynasty learnt any lessons? Will they ever will?

You being such an expert of international relationship, care to explain why India is also trying to get in the Afghanistan game (although apparently has been doing more talking than walking).

 

[beijingwalker]

First the erstwhile Soviet Union got kicked out. Then it was the turn of the US of A to get the hell out of Afghanistan. And now the next to face the wrath of the Afghans seems to be China which is hell bent on exploiting Afghanistan's resources. They will meet the same fate. If the super powers couldn't hold their own against the Afghans (who hate outsiders exploiting them for their own ends), what chance does China have? Nix. Nada. Zilch!

Hasn't the Han dynasty learnt any lessons? Will they ever will?

we are giving them money and a better life,we won't send our troops like USSR and USA did,from the report it shows that all sectors in Afhanistan are happy to see our presence.

hey are rare among the actors in Afghanistan in that they are not seen as having been too close to any side of the conflict," Small said. "All sides are happy to see China's expanded role."

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

First the erstwhile Soviet Union got kicked out. Then it was the turn of the US of A to get the hell out of Afghanistan. And now the next to face the wrath of the Afghans seems to be China which is hell bent on exploiting Afghanistan's resources. They will meet the same fate. If the super powers couldn't hold their own against the Afghans (who hate outsiders exploiting them for their own ends), what chance does China have? Nix. Nada. Zilch!

Hasn't the Han dynasty learnt any lessons? Will they ever will?

Dude, Super powers such Soviet and U.S went there with war machineries, we go there with $$$ and reconstruction equipments.do you see the difference? Afghanistan people will understand us.

 

[KRAIT]

Dude, Super powers such Soviet and U.S went there with war manichineries, we go there with $$$ and reconstruction equipments.do you see the difference? Afghanistan people will understand us.

Agreed but they see Chinese as foreigners. Hope China use its allies and local population for majority of the work. Sending your own labor should be avoided.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Buddy, you might be inviting terrorists in your own country. Just use other nations and pay them. No need to get hands dirty.

We chineses are risk taken: risk nothing, get nothing.

Agreed but they see Chinese as foreigners. Hope China use its allies and local population for majority of the work. Sending your own labor should be avoided.

African people saw us as foreigners too but we're OK there.

 

[KRAIT]

We chineses are risk taken: risk nothing, get nothing.
African people saw us as foreigners too but we're OK there.

You do realize that Africans and Afghanis don't have same mind set, do you ?

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

You being such an expert of international relationship, care to explain why India is also trying to get in the Afghanistan game (although apparently has been doing more talking than walking).

Sure India don't want to miss this golden opportunity but it was cursed from not having direct connection to afghanistan. they have lost the old silk road after the partition.

You do realize that Africans and Afghanis don't have same mind set, do you ?

They're human after all, we will be able to manage our inter-relation.

 

[KRAIT]

Sure India don't want to miss this golden opportunity but it was cursed from not having direct connection to afghanistan. they have lost the old silk road after the partition.

Well that's why India is working with Iran. Of course we lost silk route but what's the point over crying on the past. Its better we focus on what we can do. Chinese investment will help India too. More economic growth, more employment to local Afghan people will help in stability of the region, that's what India and Iran wants.

Here the interests of India and China converges. Of course we will compete for getting their resources but to harness those resources, we have to cooperate with each other too.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Well that's why India is working with Iran. Of course we lost silk route but what's the point over crying on the past. Its better we focus on what we can do. Chinese investment will help India too. More economic growth, more employment to local Afghan people will help in stability of the region, that's what India and Iran wants.

Here the interests of India and China converges. Of course we will compete for getting their resources but to harness those resources, we have to cooperate with each other too.

I like your cooperation spirit and also the competition one , we will see if China + India can do better for Afganistan people than those two superpower did.

 

[Wombat]

+ = can manage Afghanistan