| inbluevt | Date: Monday, 2013/06/17, 1:26 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
|
|
Private
Group: Blocked
Messages: 1024
|
For a relatively small drilling operation, China National Petroleum
Corporation's (CNPC) project in Afghanistan's Sar-e-Pul province has a
large footprint. Several layers of fences and containers serving as blast walls
surround the extraction site, which includes dormitories, an office
complex and various security structures. Throughout the day, trucks ferry in equipment
and more containers. On the outside, the faces are all Afghan, but
CNPC's logo and bright red Chinese slogans are impossible to miss.
This remote outpost, not far from Afghanistan's northern border with
Turkmenistan, may symbolize the country's future after the planned U.S.
withdrawal of combat troops next year. As Washington prepares its exit following
13 years in the country, signs that Beijing has steadily stepped up its
official and corporate presence across Afghanistan have begun to arise. In
September, then Politburo member Zhou Yongkang met with President Hamid
Karzai, while lower level diplomats have discussed greater engagement with the Afghan
government. China even plans to re-open a branch of the Confucius
Institute, an organization devoted to teaching Chinese culture and language, in Kabul.
These efforts are part of a rapid change in Chinese strategy. Until
two years ago, Chinese strategists regarded Afghanistan as solely an
American concern: Washington broke it, and Washington should have to put it back
together. Now, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are the largest
investors in Afghanistan's extractive sector and Afghan officials speak of
Chinese investment as central to ensuring that the national government
in Kabul will remain in power after 2014. American analysts, for their
part, have undergone a similar transition, going from criticizing
Chinese companies for riding on the coattails of U.S. security to openly advocating that
Beijing take a leadership role in post-withdrawal Afghanistan.
More
Message edited by inbluevt - Monday, 2013/06/17, 1:29 PM |
|
|
| |
Main 
