Posted on 10/07/2001 2:08:27 PM PDT by RightlySo
China Moves Forces into Afghanistan
6 October: Before even the launching of the major US military offensive in Afghanistan, long Chinese convoys were carrying armed Chinese Muslim servicemen through northwest China into Afghanistan, according to DEBKAfile’s intelligence experts.
They were sent in to fight alongside the ruling Taliban and Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Their number is estimated roughly between 5000 and 15,000. Our sources report another three convoys are behind the first 3000, who crossed the frontier Friday, October 5.
They are entering Afghanistan along the ancient Krakoram Road to the Afghan-Pakistani border, through the Kulik Pass of Little Pamir, which is situated in one of the highest and most remote regions of the world.
Beijing is deploying this force in two places:
A. Whakyir, the Kirgyz tribal encampment near the Little Pamir-Tadjik frontier, opposite the swelling concentration of US and Russian Special Forces and air strength. The Chinese have brought with them Kirgyz fundamentalist militants from the Ferghana Valley of Central Asia, as interpreters.
From Whakyir, the Chinese generals believe, with Bin Laden’s and the Taliban’s tacticians, they will be able to block off the movement of the US-led force from its rallying point in Dzhartygumbez, Tadjikistan, no more than 35 miles from Little Pamir, into the mountains of Hindu Kush.
B. Jalalabad in north Afghanistan, at the foot of the Hindu Kush range.
DEBKAfile’s Chinese sources reveal that, immediately after the terrorist strikes in the United States on September 11, the Chinese intelligence service, MSS, handed in to the defense ministry in Beijing their estimation that the United States would go to war to overthrow the Taliban regime, for the sake of which it would sign a pact with Russia.
The Chinese leadership viewed this eventuality as the most significant shift in the global balance since the 1962 Chinese-Russian feud, with dangerous implications for China’s world standing and its interests in Central and Southwest Asia. They decided it must be counteracted.
The only satisfactory outcome of the Bin Laden crisis in Chinese eyes is the redeployment of Japanese-based US troops to the Persian Gulf, when the Kitty Hawk carrier moved the 3rd Marines Division out of Okinawa last week. Chinese intelligence did not miss the absence of fighters and reconnaissance craft on her decks. The planes stayed behind, but the very fact that the Kitty Hawk is no longer within operational range of the Straits of Taiwan leaves the disputed island with diminished protection.
Beijing also took note of additional US military movements, including the Army’s 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, New York and that of another formerly Pacific-based unit, the 25th Infantry Division, out of Hawaii to the Persian Gulf.
According to DEBKAfile ’s Far East experts, the removal of substantial US military strength from the Pacific Rim opened the way for Chinese intervention in Afghanistan and its effort to slow down the US-Russian advance.
Or, (c) it comes from Debka....
Actually I would welcome this news as it would mean this is not Armegeddon, where China is allied with us in the final battle.
LOL then I guess that means you won't be making a small contribution - they take credit cards.
However, I will continue to keep my eyes peeled for any other information about China since this report did, after all, pique my interest enough to post it for discussion.
Debka has proven in the past to be correct and insightful as well as blatantly wrong on many occassions.
Agence France Presse
October 7, 2001 Sunday 1:01 AM Eastern Time
HEADLINE: China to deploy advanced Su-30MKK fighters near Taiwan: report
DATELINE: TAIPEI, Oct 7
BODY:
China plans to deploy some of its most advanced Russia-made Su-30MKK fighter jets in bases directly opposite Taiwan, a move expected to spark concern in Taipei, it was reported Sunday.
China is scheduled to take delivery of 38 Su-30MKKs ordered from Russia before the year's end and base some at Wuhu in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui, a military source was quoted by the United Daily News as saying.
The others would be deployed in Fujian province facing breakaway island Taiwan, the paper said. "The deployment of Su-30MKKs suggests that Beijing is 'conducting its military preparation' while calling for peaceful reunification with Taiwan," the United Daily News said.
The move would "tip the military balance in the Taiwan Strait in favour of Beijing and exert a greater pressure on Taiwan," it said.
Taiwan's defence ministry says China has at least 300 ballistic missiles trained on the island.
Beijing has threatened to invade the island should Taipei declare formal independence or drag its feet on reunifying with the "motherland."
Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, has declined to embrace the "One China" concept, under which Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, saying it is merely a topic for discussion.
The two-seat Su-MKKs, whose purchase was unveiled in July in Moscow during a state visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, will give China a long-range, low-level fighter jet with capabilities similar to the US F-15E.
The paper said a large group of Chinese pilots are undergoing intensive training in Russia in tandem with Beijing's rapid modernisation of its air force.
Russia, China's leading arms supplier, has delivered to China 58 Su-27s, an older but still advanced fighter, and 20 of 40 Su-30 one-seat fighters.
Moscow has also authorised production of 200 Su-27s in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
Good one..... lol.
I have never heard this before but I would like to hear your thoughts.
Yes.
You left out as well, to collect information on US and other military and to collect whatever equipment they can lost or used by the US or allied forces.
The bottom line is, they are in the area, but not as part of the alliance.
The major issue is, why did they not join us? Why do they not let use stage from their bases (I would think better than Uzbekistan's) or themselves participate as an ally and stage from their bases which are very close?
Are they letting us fly over their airspace even? Those are more interesting questions than speculating on the highly doubtful story that they have sent troops to fight for the Taliban or even than the likely deployment of some special forces to scrounge US equipment that is available after any activity.
Yep-- which is why I was cautious to post it, but curious nonetheless. Debka is sometimes correct, often wrong. But I wanted to get a disucssion going about China's involvement in Afghanistan and the anti-terrorism coalition.
China has been strangely quiet about it all. And since I'm no expert on the PRC, I wanted other's opinions and news.
:)
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