China not setting up military base in Afghanistan close to Xinjiang: Report

When asked about the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "After checking with relevant departments, it has been found that this report is not true."

By: PTI | Beijing | Published: August 29, 2018 5:05:56 pm

China is battling militants of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a separatist outfit who reportedly used the corridor as well as the routes through the adjacent Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to infiltrate in Xinjiang.

China Wednesday dismissed reports that it is setting up a military base in Afghanistan in a narrow corridor connecting the two countries near Xinjiang to prevent infiltration of Uygur militants into the volatile province.

According to a report in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, China has started building a training camp for Afghan troops in Wakhan corridor – a project Beijing is fully funding. Once the camp is completed, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is likely to send hundreds of military personnel – at least one battalion strong – to Afghanistan’s isolated Wakhan, the Post report said.

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When asked about the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “After checking with relevant departments, it has been found that this report is not true.” Asked whether China is funding Afghanistan to setup the base, Hua said “if setting up military base is not true what comes next is also not true”.

The Chinese military had denied a similar report in January this year. The Wakhan corridor is a narrow strip of inhospitable and barely accessible land extending about 350km from the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan to China’s Muslim region of Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have carried out sweeping crackdowns on the Uygur ethnic minority group in recent months.

Uygurs are agitating against large-scale settlements of majority Han from other parts of China. China is battling militants of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a separatist outfit who reportedly used the corridor as well as the routes through the adjacent Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to infiltrate in Xinjiang.

China has been periodically putting pressure on Pakistan to crackdown on ETIM training bases in its tribal areas. Reports in the official media here in the past said China and Afghanistan border troops jointly patrolled the PoK part of the border to prevent infiltration.

China which looks to spread its influence far and wide has already set up a base at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Beijing says it is a logistics base aimed at providing resting facilities to its naval troops taking part in the anti-piracy operations.

China is also developing a strategic port at Gwadar in Pakistan which will provide it access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Also China has acquired the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka for 90 years. The Sri Lankan government insists that it is purely for civilian purposes and no military activities will be permitted.