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Chinese Bid to Acquire Natural Resources in Afghanistan
Dr Arvind Kumar
Apr 2010
Apr 2010
China's policy toward Afghanistan is a mixture of many paradoxes. Beijing perceives ample commercial opportunities in Afghanistan. However, it alone cannot explore those opportunities without the support of other regional governments that might prefer to limit China's influence there. China is apparently opposed to a long-term Western military presence in its backyard because it fears that an abrupt US/NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan could risk important Chinese commercial and security interests in the region. Besides, Beijing also nurses apprehension that the growing strength of Islamist extremists in Afghanistan is increasing the terrorist threat to China itself as well as its close ally Pakistan. At the same time Chinese leaders worry that supporting the anti-Taliban coalition militarily would make China a more likely target of Muslim terrorism and alienate Beijing from Afghanistan's future government.
From 1949 through the mid-1970s, Beijing had developed good relations with Kabul. In the aftermath of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1980-1988), relations between Kabul and Beijing collapsed. While adopting a low-key profile, China assisted the anti-Soviet insurgency by providing weapons and training in collaboration with the United States and Pakistan. China did not normalize relations with Afghanistan until 1992. Subsequently, Beijing withdrew its diplomatic staff from Kabul in February 1993 and did not reopen its embassy until February 2002.
Narcotics Galore
Afghanistan is currently the world's largest national opium producer. Curbing the influx of narcotics from Afghanistan has become priority for Beijing. Recent years have seen surge in the volume of narcotics entering China from the Golden Crescent—a heroin-producing zone comprising portions of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.2 In 2004, the Chinese government estimated that as much as 20 percent of the heroin available in the PRC originated from Afghanistan3; that figure is likely higher in 2010.
It is interesting to note that the increasing volume of narcotics entering China has coincided with growing demand for illicit drugs. Narcotics use in China increased by 9.2 percent in 2008. Sharp rise in narcotics consumption and drug-related cases of HIV/AIDS due to the influx of Afghan drugs is Xinjiang and other regions. According to one report, Xinjiang's local police prosecuted 1,563 drug-related cases, arrested almost 2,000 suspects, and seized 144 kilograms of imported heroin transported from Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2008.5
There are frequent reports of Afghan Taliban militants using revenues from the opium trade to purchase weapons, fund training, and buy support are widespread. Other Islamist terrorist movements active in Central Asia also finance activities through narcotics trafficking. The resulting increase in the strength of the Islamist terrorist groups risks empowering Uyghur militants and threatens China's newly acquired economic interests in Afghanistan. The Chinese President Hu Jintao reportedly circulated an internal memo calling on security forces in Xinjiang to combat narcotics trafficking more aggressively.
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