Expert Explains: As Pakistan again points fingers at Afghanistan over terror, a look at Kabul-Beijing ties

China on Sunday condemned the February 6 blast in Islamabad, which killed 31 people. “China strongly condemns the attack, opposes any form of terrorism and firmly supports the Pakistani government in safeguarding national security and stability and protecting the safety of the people,” its foreign ministry said in a statement. Pakistan has said that the bomber had links to Afghanistan. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. The blast comes at a time Afghanistan-Pakistan relations are at a low, and China has tried to mediate between the two. The various terror outfits active in Pakistan and Afghanistan have had a history of targetting Chinese projects and people in their countries. The Taliban government and Beijing, meanwhile, have also been trying to deepen engagement, cautiously. In this context, it is useful to take a look at the arc of Afghanistan-China ties, as geopolitical and security ties realign and reset in India’s neighbourhood. Terror attacks Last month, a suicide bomber struck a Chinese restaurant in Kabul. Seven persons, including a Chinese national were killed. The Islamic State-Khorasan (ISKP) claimed responsibility. This was not the first Chinese to become a victim of terrorism in Afghanistan. Nine Chinese died in three separate terrorist attacks in the country last year. ISKP claimed that it had carried out one of them. More than two decades earlier, in June 2004, 11 Chinese working on a road project in Kunduz province were killed by terrorists. The Taliban were suspected of carrying out that atrocity. These incidents have led to a degree of caution in China’s approaches, on the ground, in Afghanistan. This has not, however, meant a lack of Chinese desire in cultivating its long-term economic and security interests in the country. On its part, Afghanistan has been conscious of the rise of China, which has given opportunities for Sino-Afghan cooperation in these areas. Both countries opened a new chapter in their relationship beginning with the defeat of the Taliban in 2001 and the establishment of the Afghan Republic in 2004. The return of the Taliban to power in Kabul has witnessed a basic continuance of Chinese policies towards Afghanistan; the Taliban too want to develop collaborative relations with China. Ancient ties A new period of China-Afghanistan relations began two and a half decades ago but their interaction has continued through the millenia. Both lands were part of the Buddhist world with Afghanistan one of its major centres. China received the teachings of the Sakya Prince through Afghanistan and Central Asia. Chinese scholars Faxien and Xuanzang travelled to India via Afghanistan in the early fourth and around mid seventh centuries respectively. The Silk Road network which carried Chinese goods to Europe from the second century BC to around the fifteenth century traversed parts of Northern Afghanistan. Thus, Afghanistan and China interacted during the Buddhist period and later from the ninth-tenth century when Islam spread throughout Afghanistan and also in Central Asia. Significantly, for present times, Islam was embraced by the Uighur Turkic people who inhabit Xinjiang and are at odds with the government. Afghanistan’s direction changed towards India with the rise of Afghan dynasties which spread Muslim rule in India. The establishment of Mughal rule in India witnessed a struggle for Afghanistan between the Persians and them. The western part of Afghanistan came under Persian political and cultural sway. The Mughals lost their Afghan territories between around mid seventeenth to mid eighteenth centuries and the Persians too suffered a setback once Ahmed Shah Abdali, a Pashtun Popalzai military commander, established his authority in Kandahar in 1747. He and his successors spread their authority from the Indus to the Oxus rivers. A new era began in Afghanistan. The present Afghan state’s roots and its territorial configuration go back to Ahmed Shah. Ahmed Shah sent emissaries to China which was under the Qing dynasty. However, nothing concrete emerged. Both were peripheral to each other’s concerns. The Great Game Beginning with the nineteenth century the priority for Afghanistan was to maintain its autonomy amidst the clash of the expanding British empire in the Indian sub-continent and the Russian empire in Central Asia. As the Great Game on Afghanistan took place between the British and Russia, China became a spectator. It did not have the power or the interest to show concern in Afghan affairs. The British and the Russians finally worked out an arrangement to make Afghanistan a buffer state but under British influence. This situation continued till 1919 when Kabul regained its autonomy in foreign affairs. The establishment of the Soviet Union meant that Central Asia and China became ‘distant’ for Afghanistan. The departure of the British from the India sub-continent and the establishment of Communist rule in China brought about a new situation for Sino-Afghan ties. Diplomatic relations were established between the two countries in 1950 and senior level political contact was established in 1950 when Premier Zhou-en-Lie visited Kabul. Some Chinese economic and technical assistance went to Afghanistan. More importantly, both countries settled their border in 1963. Despite this, relations remained at a low ebb. The Soviet Union became Afghanistan’s principal supporter in the 1950s and early 1960s. This was a concern for China which had become estranged from the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. ## The Communist era in Afghanistan The Afghan monarchy was deposed in 1973 by King Zahir Shah’s cousin Daud Khan with the support of Afghan army officers who had turned communist. Five years later Daud was killed by the communists and Afghanistan was hurled into greater turmoil. The Soviet Union patronised the communist rulers and moved its forces into Afghanistan in December 1979 to bring stability following a bloody split in the Communists. The Afghan Jihad began against the Soviets and the communists. China joined the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in helping the Mujahideen. It provided weapons of Soviet origin. The Soviets found themselves sucked in an unwinnable war. Accepting a strategic defeat it withdrew its forces in February 1989. Two years later the Soviet Union disintegrated and Russian power was decisively diminished. In Afghanistan the one-time communist turned nationalist, Najibullah, found it untenable to hold on to power with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Taliban and Taliban 2.0 The Mujahideen stepped into centre stage and the 1990s witnessed their failure and the rise of the Taliban who took Kabul in 1996 ushering in an era of Islamist governance. The country was locked into civil war. China did not recognise the Taliban but maintained contacts with it through Pakistan and directly with the object of dissuading the group from helping the Uighur militants. It is estimated that around two thousand were in Taliban controlled territories. The fall of the Taliban led to the Afghan Republic whose leaders were deeply impressed by Chinese economic success and wanted its involvement in Afghanistan’s development. On its part, China did not initially get entangled in the government and Taliban differences but later tried its hand at mediating between them. The Republic and China established a Strategic and Cooperative Partnership in 2012. However, China’s focus remained on exploiting the mineral resources of the Hindu Kush mountains but the continuance of the Taliban insurgency prevented it from doing so. China’s concerns with the Republic taking strong action against the Uighur militants in finding shelter in remote areas continued. It also wanted to stop Afghan narcotics flows to China. China’s objectives in Afghanistan did not change with the Republic’s fall. It adjusted to the new situation and its embassy continued in Kabul. It wants a stable Afghanistan economically integrated with it but will not get militarily involved to stabilise the Afghan situation. It also wants to mediate between the Taliban and Pakistan but is unlikely to succeed.