What China has to fear from US drones in Trump’s Afghan search

As the Trump administration gears up for a renewed campaign in Afghanistan, US military actions are spilling over the border to the Pakistani province of Balochistan – home to a centrepiece of Beijing’s Belt and Road project

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Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah meets China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:00pm, 2 Jul 2017Updated: 11:22pm, 6 Jul 2017

China finds itself in the eye of a brewing diplomatic storm between the United States and Pakistan over Afghanistan that threatens its multibillion-dollar Belt and Road investments.

Tensions between the US and Pakistan, its major non-Nato ally, have risen in recent months since the Trump administration signalled its intention to renew its military campaign to arrest the rapid loss of Afghan territory to Taliban insurgents. The Pentagon believes the success of the initiative depends on using political pressure and punitive measures to force Islamabad into reversing its alleged policy of granting sanctuary to the Taliban and its terrorist faction, the Haqqani Network.

“The exploitation of ungoverned sanctuaries outside Afghanistan by terrorists and Afghan insurgents is the single greatest external factor that could cause failure of the coalition campaign,” said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan on June 20. “Afghan-oriented militant groups retain freedom of action inside Pakistani territory and benefit from the support of elements of the Pakistani government.”

A Chinese military honour guard welcomes Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah to Beijing. Photo: AFP

Pakistan’s alleged support for the Taliban stems from its decades of hostility towards leading members of the Afghan government who are allied with its arch-enemy, India. Pakistan cannot afford hostile borders on its eastern and western flanks, making it a geostrategic imperative for it to back the Taliban.

China in the middle: Pakistan trade corridor under spotlight

To prevent tensions over Afghanistan spinning out of control, China prodded Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani into a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana on June 9. They agreed to work towards the establishment of a mechanism on cross-border counterterrorism operations and to discuss the reactivation of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), a forum comprising Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US.