After the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which came after nearly 20 years of war, and the return of the Taliban movement to power in 2021, China began to pay attention to the Afghan corridor, which separated two empires in the 19th century, for security and economic reasons at the same time.
With the completion of the exit of US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, neighboring countries began to reconsider their relations with Kabul, and the visit of the Taliban delegation to Beijing had reinforced Chinese ambitions, especially over the Wakhan corridor, which Foreign Policy described as the forgotten corridor.
The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow area in the Afghan province of Badakhshan, with a length of about 300 km and a width of 15 to 57 km, in the valleys of the Pamir, Fakhan and Biang rivers, surrounded by Pakistan and Tajikistan as well as China.
The agreements between Russia and Britain in 1873 and the latter and Afghanistan in 1893 divided the Wakhan region into two parts, making the Bang and Pamir rivers the border between Afghanistan and the Russian Empire (present-day Tajikistan).
On the southern side, the Durand Line Agreement of 1893 defined the boundary between British India and Afghanistan, leaving this a narrow strip of land as a buffer between the two empires.
Foreign Policy magazine described Wakhan as the forgotten corridor (Al-Jazeera)
Economic interests
Due to its location in the South China Sea, Beijing is investing in Pakistan's ports and in the maintenance of the Karakoram Expressway linking Xinjiang with the Indian Ocean, and this success and Beijing's alliance with Islamabad may have fueled some enthusiasm about building a road to the Wakhan Pass.
During the era of the American occupation of Afghanistan and the presence of the Americans in the region, China enjoyed the free regional security that was provided by the American presence along the Pakistani-Afghan-Afghan-Chinese borders (the so-called Afpac area), which enabled it to develop the economic corridor between China and Pakistan, which is one of the main Chinese geostrategic assets that has become The centerpiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping's defining policy is the "Belt and Road" initiative.
But China will now have to identify new ways to protect these interests, and Beijing is currently working out how to deal with a post-US Afghanistan, particularly with regard to the Wakhan corridor.
On the other hand, Afghanistan has been relatively resistant to Chinese investment, as a major deal won by a Chinese consortium (an alliance of companies) to develop a large copper mine has been on hold for years.
According to analysts, the intense economic relationship between the two countries will not begin to develop until the situation in Afghanistan is stabilized and the investment risks are reduced, noting that securing a hidden and fast road to Afghanistan through Wakhan may be extremely important for Beijing.
security concerns
The Afpac region is currently central to China's security interests for two main reasons:
The Muslim Uighur minority based in Xinjiang (Xinjiang) has historical and ethnic ties across China's northwest borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and Beijing's concern stems from Uighur fighters seeking to use Afghanistan's remote Wakhan corridor to launch attacks and provoke dissent in Xinjiang.
The second concern, from the Chinese point of view, closely related to the first, is that what it describes as terrorist groups linked to the Islamic State or al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be used to threaten Beijing's burgeoning interests in Pakistan.
According to India TODAY, with the increasing Chinese fears of Uyghur "extremism" in its western region and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, reports - which indicated that this movement removed Pakistani border signs in the Wakhan Corridor - raise questions about the future of the narrow corridor.
But researchers in international studies point out that China overestimates the threat posed by the Uyghurs and associated groups, which have neither force nor even weapons.