What China can do in Post-Afghan War
I was taking a picture of an ancient Buddhist site when I was
stopped by a Soviet Red Army soldier at the Soviet-Afghanistan
Friendship Bridge across the river Amu Darya near Termez, where
tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers were buried in a nearby
graveyard. The Soviet war in Afghanistan killed 15,000 Soviet
soldiers and 1.5 million Afghan
people.
“No
photo,” the Soviet soldier warned me.
“I’m an archaeological reporter,” I told him.
“No journalists are allowed to take photos here,” he said, his
rifle pointing at me.
Ten years after my visit to Afghan border, U.S. led another
invasion of Afghanistan. The aim of U.S.-led Afghan War was to kill
Osama bin Laden. Now with the death of bin Laden, Obama announced
that 10,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2011. An
additional 23,000 troops will leave the country by the summer of
2012.
The war in Afghanistan was the longest war of the United States. At
least 2,753 NATO fighters were killed. The NATO and U.S. government
have refused to release the number of civilian deaths in the
war.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led Afghan war.
Journalists and diplomats from Germany, United Kingdom, India,
Australia and France have been visiting me in my Tsinghua office ,
discussing the role China could play after the withdraw of Western
troops.
This week I am hosting an academic delegation from Pakistan
attending a conference “China-Pakistan Strategic Relations in
Post-Afghan War”.
I told my visitors that in 1980s Soviet army was the cause of the
Afghan issue. Soviet tried to liberate Afghan people from the
fundamentalist and feudal shackles but only led to resentment from
Afghan people. American occupiers tried to do the same. But they
are not playing well. They are now leaving Afghanistan like the
Soviet Red Army, leaving a mess in the country.
China should take the initiative to help promote a national
reconciliation and reconstruction as the country prepares for the
withdrawal of U.S.-led troops.
Contrast to the United States and other western countries who have
left black marks because of their invasion of the country, China’s
relation with Afghanistan is a clean book. China is remembered as a
civilized country by all fighting groups and political forces in
Afghanistan.
Being unblemished and trusted by all sides in
Afghanistan, China should express her desires for a brotherly
relation with its war-torn neighboring country after American and
NATO withdraw their troops;
China is now investing billions of dollars in Afghanistan
reconstruction, oil and mining industry. China needs to undertake a
policy of broader and proactive engagement there.
China cannot continue America’s Afghan policy which already failed
by trying to wipe all the insurgents. China should persuade all the
fighting forces sit at a roundtable for national reconciliation,
with the aim to help the Afghan people whose life and livelihood
have been destroyed and persuade the Afghan government to patiently
listen to the voices of Afghan people.
To achieve this, China needs to resume its long time brotherly
relations with Afghanistan not only government to government, but
also people to people, helping the Karzai regime enter a dialogue
with its own people, particularly people in the tribal areas and
the belligerent Taliban.
I believe with China’s long-time respect for Afghan sovereignty,
China could do a better job in influencing its western neighbor
than NATO countries.
One thing China should assure Afghan people that it will not send
its troops to Afghanistan or ship military equipment to any
political forces of the country.
With withdrawal of U.S. troops from a region which is most
sensitive to China’s national security, China can feel much ease to
open Wahan corridor creating a short cut for Afghanistan to Kashi
Special Economic Zone.
In the meantime, China should initiate a regional community with a
focus on political reconciliation, peaceful development and
regional cooperation.
As the first step, China must initiate a three-party strategic
agreement with its neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan, pushing
for the establishment of a Pamir Group of the three countries.
The 10-year Afghan war not only has thrown the country back into
Stone Age, it has also sown distrust seeds between Afghanistan and
its long-time brother Pakistan. China must do everything possible
to assuage the distrust between the two countries. Any baseless
allegations and attacks between the two governments only harm their
national interests —— peace, cooperation and development.
In the long run, China must initiate a multi-party dialogue among
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, India and China, creating a
five-country group for regional economic cooperation.
China should recognize that any regional cooperation must respect
the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the countries in
the region. Their national interests are sacred and supreme.
(Li Xiguang, director of Tsinghua University Center for Pakistan
Studies, Xiguang@tsinghua.edu.cn )