The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that China is constructing a military base in a remote region of Afghanistan close to Xinjiang, the troubled province where much of China’s Muslim population lives. Both Chinese and Afghan officials quickly denied the report and said China is merely helping to train Afghan counter-terrorist forces.
Contents: China alarmed by consequences of its CPEC investment in Pakistan — terrorism and corruption; China halts CPEC funds over concerns about corruption in Pakistan; Pakistan alarmed about a Chinese ‘debt trap’
Contents: China forum launches the decades-long ‘One Belt One Road’ project; Laborers on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) shot dead on Saturday
Contents: Massive China-Pakistan CPEC energy project said to end energy crisis ‘soon’; Skeptics claim that CPEC will only benefit China, not Pakistan; Pakistan will use dark financing to cover the cost of protecting Chinese workers
Contents: ISIS claims responsibility for hospital attack in Kabul, Afghanistan; CENTCOM commander: Afghanistan ‘stalemate’ requires ‘thousands’ more US troops; Report: Trump administration shuts out Russia and Turkey in Syria
The United States is aware of, but not openly reacting to, Chinese military ground operations inside war-ravaged Afghanistan.
China has mandated that all cars in one prefecture of western Xinjiang province carry government-issued tracking devices so that Beijing’s Communist Party officials are aware of the locations of all cars in Bayingol at all times.
The Obama administration is seeking to enhance counterterrorism cooperation with China, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
China has made a public appeal to the United States for help in controlling radical Islamic movements in the country’s Xinjiang region, saying that the Islamist groups are connected to the global jihadist network that seek to carry out attacks in the West.
