China’s next border friction may be with Afghanistan, the ‘graveyard of empires’
- US troop withdrawal risks a political and security vacuum on the border of Xinjiang which could be filled by anti-Chinese groups
- But senior State Council adviser says China has no interest in filling the void left by Washington in the Central Asian nation
Acting defence secretary Christopher Miller said on Tuesday the US would cut its military presence in Afghanistan to 2,500 troops from 4,500 by January 15, while also drawing down forces in Iraq to a similar number.
The pull-out will exacerbate a “power and military-security vacuum”, according to Nishank Motwani, deputy director at Kabul-based think tank the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. He said the gap could be filled by terrorist groups and Taliban fundamentalists angered by Beijing’s repressive policies towards ethnic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
The UN estimates more than a million Uygurs have been detained in Xinjiang – a region three times the size of France – in what Beijing calls “vocational training centres” aimed at countering a separatist and terrorist insurgency. Clashes between Uygurs and Han Chinese in the region killed hundreds in 2009.
01:57
US House passes Uygur law demanding sanctions on China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to remove the Taliban from power. It said the Taliban were providing sanctuary to al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that masterminded the September 11 attacks the same year in New York and Washington, which killed almost 3,000 Americans.
While China found the presence of the US military in its own backyard unsettling, it used the opportunity to link Washington’s anti-terrorism war to its own drive to suppress Muslim Uygur opposition groups in Xinjiang. Clashes between Uygurs and Han Chinese in 2009 killed hundreds of people.