BISHKEK (TCA) — The Chinese Foreign Ministry on January 25 dismissed reports that the People’s Liberation Army of China is establishing a new base near the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reports.
Reports of China building a base in Afghanistan seem to have come from a misreading of a Central Asian news report that Beijing will help fund a base for the Afghan Army.
On January 4, Russia’s Ferghana News Agency published a report indicating that the Afghan Armed Forces would construct a military base in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan with Beijing’s financial support, citing Afghan Gen. Dawlat Waziri.
An Afghan Defense Ministry source informed the news outlet that China was concerned about Uighurs training with terrorist groups like Daesh or the Taliban and then returning to China to carry out acts of terror. “The Chinese side fears that the Chinese Uighurs, who are among the terrorists now, can cross the territory of China through Afghanistan and make problems for the Chinese authorities,” the unnamed official said.
Chinese authorities have struggled to overcome “the three evils” of extremism, separatism and terrorism presented by Uighurs determined to resist Chinese rule. Since mid-2015, China has been in a higher terror alert following a tenfold increase in the number of “trained jihadist fighters” caught trying to enter China, the South China Morning Post reports.
According to the Ferghana News report, “the Chinese side covers all material and technical expenses for this base — weapons, uniforms for soldiers, military equipment and everything else necessary for its functioning.”
On January 25, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not specifically address whether or not Chinese funds would be used for a new base in Afghanistan, but ministry spokesman Wu Qian did express that “the so-called issue that China is building a military base in Afghanistan is baseless.”
Tokyo-based online magazine the Diplomat picked up the Ferghana News report, which later found its way into Chinese media reports, according to Reuters’ recounting of how the story moved from the Ferghana News report to a question for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
