CHINA-AFGHANISTAN: PLA MILITARY OPERATIONS INSIDE AFGHANISTAN

Mystery over recent reported sightings of Chinese military vehicles patrolling inside Afghanistan deepened last week as Beijing denied its troops were in Afghanistan but confirmed it was undertaking “joint counter-terrorism operations” with Kabul. Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), at a Defence Ministry press conference on February 23, 2017, flatly denied any reports of Chinese troops inside Afghanistan,but said “the law enforcement authorities of the two sides have conducted joint law enforcement operations in border areas to fight against terrorism. The report that the Chinese military patrolled in Afghanistan is false.” 
 
(Comment: The first photos were published on November 3, when WION, an Indian news website, reported the presence of Chinese military vehicles in the Wakhan corridor, a mountainous strip of land between the Pamir and Karakoram mountain ranges that extends all the way to the border with China. In February, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, a think-tank, published a report citing “overwhelming evidence” including statements of diplomats, as well as an unnamed Chinese official, that Chinese troops were patrolling inside Afghanistan, though the article also cited a denial by Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.) 
 






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