China’s Afghan engagement: a strategy to tap natural resources?

They are profiting from the troop deployments of the USA and its allies in Afghanistan, and now the West is getting increasingly irritated about it. But China says it is doing a lot for the stability of the country by investing in its economy. Despite demands made by the US, Beijing has said sending its own troops to Afghanistan is not an option.

Afghanistan has large deposits of copper and iron ore and Chinese state-run businesses are out to get it. Two years ago a Chinese mining consortium bought the mining rights to a copper mine in Aynak, near Kabul, for 3.4 billion US dollars.

It is the largest copper mine in the world and the consortium is aiming to produce 11 million tons of copper there within the next 25 years. Chinese state-owned enterprises are now interested in the iron ore mines in Hajijak, central Afghanistan.

Western criticism

Criticism from the West is getting louder. They say that China is capitalizing on Afghanistan's resources while the US and its allies are fighting against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Conrad Schetter from Bonn University’s Center for Development and Research says the West's anger is understandable.

“The Chinese strategy is to concentrate on economic aspects and stay as far away from politics as possible, while relying on the Americans and NATO to take care of terrorism. And they don't feel they need to participate in the latter,” he says.

China says projects strengthen Afghanistan

South Asia expert at the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences, Ye Hailin, says such accusations are plain nonsense. He says, investment projects like in Aynak are part of China's development strategy and that China also has an interest in Afghanistan's stability. By strengthening Afghanistan's regional economy, jobs will be created and, in the long run, that would certainly help improve the situation there.

"Stability has an impact on the order of society in northwest China,” says Ye. “We do not want Afghanistan to become a training camp for extremists from all over the world. If that happens, it would pose a threat for all of East Asia and Afghanistan's neighbors. China's interests are not only of economic nature."

Statements like this are not enough to appease the West. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for China's help in Afghanistan on her first visit to Beijing in February last year. She suggested Chinese military intervention, which the communist government turned down because, as they said, China and the USA have different goals in Afghanistan. They said the US and NATO would have to shoulder the responsibility alone.

China seeks distance from NATO

Bernt Berger from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs explains, "When it comes to Afghanistan, they don't want it to look like they have the same security objectives as NATO."

However, Berger points out that Al Qaeda is also a threat to China, as it shares a border with Afghanistan in its north-western province, Xinjiang. This province is home to a large Muslim community, the Uyghurs. Time and again, civil unrest and riots break out, with the Uyghur people fighting for their independence from China. Berger says Al Qaeda is trying to turn this movement into an Islamist struggle -- which means that NATO is doing what is best for China by fighting terrorists in the Hindu Kush.

Author: Christoph Ricking / sb
Editor: Grahame Lucas