Shifts in Beijing’s Afghan Policy: A View From the Ground

Shifts in Beijing’s Afghan Policy: A View From the Ground

By Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersenhttp://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=40070&tx_ttnews[backPid]=25&cHash=612a73f86de1415ea70c005ba7a73510

In a clear but still gradual shift over the past year, Chinese policymakers have changed their stance on Afghanistan from cultivated disinterest to growing engagement. As the potential security vacuum left by Western withdrawal in 2014 comes into sharper relief, Beijing has come to realize that it will have to play a role in encouraging a more stable and developed future for Afghanistan. As with China’s engagement in Central Asia as a whole, Chinese activity in Afghanistan is less part of a grand strategy for the region and more the sum of number of disparate parts. Nevertheless, the sum of these parts could have major consequences for Afghanistan and the region’s trajectory as it signals a growing realization by Beijing of the role it will find itself playing in the future.

 

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