With growing overseas interests and unstable, ungoverned areas near China’s western frontier, the calculations for Chinese security interventions may be shifting.
And for the first time in modern history, with rapidly developing power projection capabilities, China is in a position to be able to export security beyond its borders.
The last time China went to war was in 1979, with Vietnam, just four years after the fall of Saigon and the US’ equally dramatic withdrawal.
Then, instability on China’s border with the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and Vietnam’s invasion of its neighbour inspired an operation to punish Hanoi.
It is yet to be seen if the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will be followed by similar Chinese adventurism. The country’s economic interests there are few, save for a concession on a US$4 billion copper mine in Mes Aynak, the world’s second largest, that has been stalled for a decade.
And while Beijing is very keen to ensure Afghanistan under the Taliban does not become a training ground for extremists or, more importantly, Uyghur separatist militants, it has proactively engaged diplomatically with the Taliban to gain assurances of that very fact.
Still, it is now clear for Beijing that in Afghanistan, as elsewhere in the world, it must increasingly shoulder this security burden itself. Its free ride is over.
Christian Le Miere is a foreign policy adviser and the founder and managing director of Arcipel, a strategic advisory firm based in London.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vY29tbWVudGFyeS9jaGluYS1mcmVlLXJpZGVyLXVzLXNlY3VyaXR5LXVtYnJlbGxhLWFmZ2hhbmlzdGFuLTIxMzI1NTbSAQA?oc=5
2021-08-24 22:15:30Z
CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vY29tbWVudGFyeS9jaGluYS1mcmVlLXJpZGVyLXVzLXNlY3VyaXR5LXVtYnJlbGxhLWFmZ2hhbmlzdGFuLTIxMzI1NTbSAQA
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar