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| Afghanistan | |||
| Taleban 'getting Chinese weapons' - via Iran? | |||
| 2007-09-04 | |||
| Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan. The BBC has been told that on several occasions Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops by Afghan insurgents. The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation. This appears to be the first time Britain has asked China how its arms are ending up with the Taleban. At a meeting held recently at the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, a British official expressed the UK's growing concern about the incidents. When asked about the latest British concerns, the Chinese foreign ministry referred back to a statement made by their spokesman Qin Gang in July who said China's arms exports were carried out "in strict accordance with our law and our international obligations".
A senior Afghan official told the BBC, "Chinese HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles are with the Taleban, we know this... and we are worried where do the Taleban get them, some of these weapons have been made recently in Chinese factories". Another Afghan official who deals with counter-terrorism said, "Serial numbers and other information from most of the Chinese weapons have been removed in most cases and it's almost impossible for us to find out where they come from but we have shared our concerns with the Chinese and the Americans also". The Afghan government considers China to be a friend, and a much less meddlesome ally than the other big player in its neighbourhood, India. But, the counter-terrorism official added, "China is worried about the presence of the US in the region". Southern Afghanistan has been awash with Chinese made arms for decades which are some of the cheapest on the market. In the past the Taleban got them via the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI, or bought them directly from arms smugglers. But it is extremely unlikely the ISI would now allow them access to anti-aircraft missiles or armour-piercing ammunition. The Pakistani army's relationship between militants in its tribal areas along the Afghan border has deteriorated sharply in recent years after Washington put pressure on President Musharraf post-9/11 to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taleban groups operating inside Pakistani territory. So the Taleban might well use any sophisticated new weapons it received against the Pakistani army. It is not in China's interest either to arm Pakistan-based militants. Over the last couple of years Chinese workers in Pakistan have been targeted by militants, in retaliation for the Pakistani army allegedly going after hard-line Muslim Uighur leaders from China's Xinjiang province, hiding in the tribal areas. So instead of Pakistan being the transit point for these weapons, the finger is being pointed by many commentators towards Iran. The Afghan government has long acknowledged privately that Iranian intelligence agencies have been active in southern Afghanistan post-9/11. Iran has been pursuing a policy of building up proxy networks to be able to attack American forces in response to any US attacks against Teheran's nuclear infrastructure.
China's booming economy and its seat at the UN security council have made it an important player on the world stage. It is a major trading partner for the UK whose economy has benefited enormously from China's cheap goods. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's newly-appointed British Minister for Asia, Lord Mark Malloch Brown acknowledged to journalists in Beijing last week that countries "need to work with China to get things done in today's world". China is going to have to show that getting things done also means stopping its arms illegally ending up in the hands of men bent on killing British troops. | |||
| Posted by:lotp |
| #7 Arms exports by country: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_con_arm_exp-military-conventional-arms-exports |
| Posted by: Darrell 2007-09-04 20:25 |
| #6 Might be an appropriate time to hint that a) the US Olympics team might not be able to make it b) any US or US-multinational who sponsors the Olympics gets a nice chat with the Treasury Department and c) it might be time to start putting a crimp in importing from China. All of the above, Pappy. All of the above. China has so much invested in the Olympics—both face-wise and financially—that they are probably at their most vulnerable for the last few decades. This is the precise moment to give them their turn in the barrel. Force them to revalue their currency plus take substantive measures towards enforcing export quality control and combating intellectual property theft. Too bad our |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-09-04 20:03 |
| #5 Pappy is it time to start giving Russian anti-aircraft missles to the Western Islamist in China? Good question. Chinese have been supplying Pakistan and Africa (via Pakistan) for decades. Ask 3dc about that sometime. Might be a good time to start playing heavy-buyer in the Afghan markets. How 'bout "WE" shoot down a few large aircraft in Western China with some Special Forces A Teams, Friends, by feinting to be Islamist? btw, do u have any Special Forces Friends? 'cause i currently don't. Marine Recon. well take a bite outta that Pappy!! Grrr! ~:) Might be an appropriate time to hint that a) the US Olympics team might not be able to make it b) any US or US-multinational who sponsors the Olympics gets a nice chat with the Treasury Department and c) it might be time to start putting a crimp in importing from China. /who knows the whole article could be pure Bunkum I think it's relatively factual. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-09-04 18:37 |
| #4 Britain has privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British troops in Afghanistan. Pappy is it time to start giving Russian anti-aircraft missles to the Western Islamist in China? How 'bout "WE" shoot down a few large aircraft in Western China with some Special Forces A Teams, Friends, by feinting to be Islamist? btw, do u have any Special Forces Friends? 'cause i currently don't. well take a bite outta that Pappy!! Grrr! ~:) /who knows the whole article could be pure Bunkum |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-09-04 12:34 |
| #3 They said these included Chinese-made air-to-surface missiles new weaponry for the Taliban Air Force? Or just plain bad writing by an ignorant "journalist" with an agenda? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-09-04 08:05 |
| #2 Korea's $20 million ransom will go a long way in China. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-09-04 06:29 |
| #1 Peshawar, Pakistan is a major market for Chinese arms. The Musharaf government has done nothing about stopping that arms trade. The Iranians finance Sunni terror groups as a means to undermine US foreign policy, but they are concerned about further strengthening of the drug mafia. There are at least 2 million heroin addicts in Iran. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-09-04 01:40 |