CHINA’S ROLE IN THE STABILIZATION OF AFGHANISTAN

Over the years, China’s ambivalent relationship toward Afghanistan has recently begun to change as the prospects of an Afghan stabilized security situation begin to emerge, and the Chinese view is that the momentum is on the side of the Coalition. For an indication of their prognosis of Afghanistan’s future, one need only follow where the money is being bet, and the Chinese are betting on success. This growing interest and confidence in our abilities to bring the country under government control, destroy, marginalize or reconcile ”spoilers” and bring about structural change in Afghanistan is particularly manifested in China’s recent $3.5 billion investment in the Aynak Copper field in Logar province. This is the single largest foreign direct investment in Afghan history and portends to be just the beginning of a systematic and deliberate program to engage the Afghans economically and exploit the vast natural resource wealth of the country. China Metallurgical Group, the company that won the bid is now, for example, also engaged in bidding for the rights to develop iron-ore deposits at Hajigak in the central province of Bamiyan, west of Kabul.