Beijing will stay on Afghan periphery

For several years the US has been trying to convince China it needs to be more involved in maintaining stability in Afghanistan, which is attached to the far western Chinese border by a narrow strip of land. Understandably, the Chinese response so far has mostly been along the lines of: “You broke it, so now you own it.” China’s leaders are well aware of Afghanistan’s reputation as the graveyard of empires — from Alexander the Great to Britain, the Soviet Union and now the US.

But Beijing’s traditional reluctance to get bogged down in an unwinnable foreign war may now be starting to fade. Reports have emerged in recent weeks of Chinese troop carriers operating in the Afghan border region adjacent to the autonomous region of Xinjiang, where the Muslim Uighur population bristles under Chinese rule.

So why has China chosen this moment to dip its toe into the murky pond next door? One obvious reason is the rising unrest and series of attacks carried out by suspected Uighur militants in Xinjiang in recent months. Beijing is concerned that Uighur separatists enjoy support in Pakistan and Afghanistan and that their capacity to plan and launch attacks from across the border is increasing all the time. This capacity may also be rising because of the vacuum left by the US as it tries to extricate itself from its longest war.

With the situation deteriorating, Beijing seems to have finally decided that it must do more to improve stability in its war-torn neighbour, even if its efforts extend only to the narrow strip of land along the Wakhan Corridor that connects Afghanistan proper with the Xinjiang border. But if the US is hoping that Chinese troops will take up some of the burden of pacifying the country, it is certain to be disappointed. Beijing’s objectives are tightly limited to neutralising the threat of terrorist attacks in China. London, March 3.