Can Taliban Forget Beijing’s Treatments of Uighur Muslims – Burning Issues -Free PDF Download

China signed accord with Taliban after 9/11

•  On the day two airplanes crashed into New York’s World Trade Center in 2001, Chinese officials signed an economic and technical cooperation accord with Afghanistan’s then-ruling Taliban in Kandahar.
•  The 9/11 attacks led the United States, in partnership with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, to launch a military campaign that ousted the Taliban regime.
• Now, China is again coming close to the Taliban to further its regional interests.

Question is Why?

Reasons

1. China wants to safeguard its Belt and Road projects,
2. Extract mineral resources in Afghanistan
3. Preventing a surge of violent jihadism in Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have detained more than a million Muslims for “reeducation” in the largest mass incarceration of people.

China is worried about its projects owing to the US Exits

• China’s latest overtures to the Taliban underscore its concern that the U.S. military withdrawal could foster greater violence and instability in the Afghanistan-Pakistan belt, which has long been a terrorism nucleus.
• Beijing wants to safeguard its heavy investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the supposed crown jewel of its Belt and Road Initiative.

Which is why China is acting urgently…

•  The U.S. plan to exit Afghanistan has added greater urgency to China’s efforts to cozy up to the Taliban.
• Chinese officials have stepped up contacts with Taliban representatives as President Donald Trump’s administration has steadily cut U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to 8,600 and closed several bases.
• Trump, calling the U.S. military involvement in war zones “the single biggest mistake in the history of our country,” has said that there would be fewer than 5,000 American troops in Afghanistan by U.S. election day in November.

In Fact…

•  In order to win the Taliban’s cooperation, China is reportedly offering to build roads in Talibancontrolled territories, as well as a number of energy projects, including generating electricity.

Yet China has nurtured long-standing ties with the Taliban.

• While the Taliban was in power, China established economic ties with it and launched flights between Kabul and Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.

Unsurprisingly, Pak has helped China

• Pakistan has helped facilitate Chinese-Taliban ties. Indeed, the Taliban’s top leadership, as well as its command and control apparatus, have been ensconced in Pakistan since it was ousted from power in 2001. This allowed China, after 9/11, to quietly continue a relationship with the Taliban.

So, what’s the issue?

•  America’s bargain with the Taliban was sealed in February with Pakistan’s active support.
•  Less known is that China also played a part in the peace effort by encouraging the Taliban to enter into a deal with the U.S.

Ties b/w Taliban and US degrading plus Ties b/w China and US have touched a new low

• Since then, relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated to a point approaching a new Cold War.
• Making matters worse, the U.S.-Taliban agreement appears to be tottering, with Washington accusing the Taliban of repeatedly violating the accord’s terms, including by launching rockets last month at two military bases used by American forces and by stepping up terror attacks on Afghan government forces.

In effect…

•  Against this background, China is likely to find it difficult to advance its interests in the Afghanistan-Pakistan belt.

Plus a resurgent Taliban.

Irrespective of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, a complete American withdrawal from Afghanistan now looks uncertain.

On top of that…

• China’s harsh anti-Islamic measures in Xinjiang are likely to fuel grassroots resentment against it, increasing the vulnerability of its projects.

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