The President Obama’s, Af-Pak Strategy announcing a reduction and a later withdrawal has set in place and brought to the fore a new dynamism in the new “Great Game” in central Asia. Up to this time, China having any interest in Afghanistan was unheard of but that is now left to the history as change has already set in.

The Chinese have to be worried about their long seashore lines of communication from the African coastline and the Persian Gulf via the Indian Ocean, the Malacca Straits, Sunda and the Lombok from which 80% of oil is imported. To surpass the Malacca dilemma, the Chinese have had the task of examining the overland routes from Pakistan region of Gwadar port via the Karakoram Mountains leading to Xinjiang Province as well as the port of Siitwe in Burma to the Chinese province of Kunming. The Chinese are also trying to have a canal through the Isthmus of Kra in Thai.

One may ask how this has anything to do with Afghanistan. As opposed to the America, whose plan extends just to the next general and general elections, the Chinese are thought to have plans for the far future. According to the Chinese expectations, the Americans will leave the Afghan soil in the near future. This will leave a big power vacuum in Afghanistan, which means the Pakistan government can take up the place left.

The country of Afghanistan has a lot of minerals, which the Chinese economy is very hungry, and in dire need of for its great and fast growth rate. The current problem in Afghanistan combines with religious extremism, which is spilling over to Pakistan, has some concerns in Xinjiang province in China. This means that for the security of its overland routes through the Khunjerab Pass in Pakistan Kashmir to Gwadar, in its efforts China has already send over 11000 troops to provide security to the Chinese work force that is in the process of constructing the road and pipeline network from any attacks from the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda.

These are the first moves in the Great Game by the government of china, which can only get bigger when Americans leave, which they must. As for the Pakistan regime, any Chinese activity suits their intentions of having an advantage over any of their enemies, India. This means that should be any Pak friendly regime in Afghanistan gets the strategic it very much craves for. It has this aim in mind, the Pakistan intelligence and the army of Pakistan has Mullah Omar and the top most Al-Qaeda hierarchy in absolute safety in the port city of Lahore.

The regime in Washington has realized the looming withdrawal thus what was over a year ago to be impossibility is fast becoming the mantra- of “integrating” the “good” Taliban into the future of the Afghan regime. On the day the Americans leave, will happen concurrently to be the same day the American backed government will have its last day in power making way for the Chinese nation and Pakistan backed Taliban to take over. Of late, the engineers from China have already been working on numerous construction activities in the country of Afghanistan.

As American influence on Afghanistan reduces that of China is on the rise. In the diplomatic arena, Xinhua, the Chinese official news agency, has begun piling some encouraging articles on why America should stop interfering with Afghanistan internal affairs. The end of the road in the Afghanistan is becoming curios and as the Chinese goes “We live in interesting times,” involvement of China in the happenings of Afghanistan is more than a certainty.

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