Biden leaves China a Xinjiang terrorism problem with US exit from Afghanistan

With the return of the Taliban and civil war seen as likely threats to a weak Kabul, China faces a security vacuum on its Western borders

Beijing needs to guard against the spread of Islamist extremism, but Chinese boots on the ground in the ‘Graveyard of Empires’ would ring alarm bells in India and Russia

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A child looks on as American military vehicles pass his village on the outskirts of Spin Boldak, southeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Photo: AP

Published: 5:00pm, 1 May 2021Updated: 10:40pm, 16 Aug 2021

The complete withdrawal of US and allied forces from Afghanistan later this year does not mean China will be able to establish its influence in the region or fill the security vacuum left by Washington, analysts have said.

Instead, the withdrawal and the uncertain security situation it poses, including the likelihood of a civil war, is likely to challenge China’s economic interests in the country and may even threaten security within China’s own borders, in the northwestern Xinjiang region where Beijing is trying to keep terrorism and extremism at bay.

In April, US President Joe Biden said the United States would withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan before September 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

Biden said the worst terrorist attack in American history could not justify the continuing deaths of American forces in what has become the nation’s longest war. The 20-years of fighting have taken the lives of 2,448 American service personnel and cost an estimated US$2 trillion.

US President Joe Biden visits military graves at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo: AP

CHINA’S SECURITY CHALLENGES

While some reports have suggested that Washington’s retreat might allow China to establish its influence in the region, Mark N. Katz, a government and politics professor at George Mason University in the US, said this was unlikely due to the poor security situation in the country, where the weak government in Kabul was likely to be overthrown by the Taliban within a year or two of allied forces departing.

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