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China spends big bucks in Afghanistan
Behind an electrified fence, blast-resistant sandbags and 53 National Police outposts, the Afghan surge is well under way.
Behind an electrified fence, blast-resistant sandbags and 53 National Police outposts, the Afghan surge is well under way.
But the foot soldiers in this valley are not fighting the Taliban, or even carrying guns. They are preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth.
And they are Chinese, undertaking by far the largest foreign investment project in war-torn Afghanistan.
Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corp., a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion — $1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, America and Kazakhstan — for the rights to mine deposits near a village called Aynak.
Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China.
While America spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.
The Chinese bid far more for the mining rights to the Aynak project and promised to invest hundreds of millions more in associated infrastructure projects than other bidders.
It is a risky venture that has not yet proved to be economical, and it has been dogged by allegations of bribery. But the Aynak investment underscores how China’s leaders, flush with money and in control of both the government and major industries, meld strategy, business and statecraft.
In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments.
China Metallurgical Group will build a generating plant to power both the copper mine and blackout-prone Kabul. It will dig a new coal mine to feed the plant’s generators.
It will build a smelter to refine copper ore, and a railroad to carry coal to the power plant and copper back to China. Its contract calls for it to build schools, roads and mosques.
Even if elements of the agreement fall through, the Chinese have already positioned themselves as generous, eager partners of the Afghan government and long-term players in the country’s future. All without firing a shot.
U.S. troops have in effect helped make Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment, but there is no sense that either government objects to that reality. The war in Afghanistan was never motivated by commercial prospects.
Moreover, if China succeeds in developing Aynak and generating revenue for the Kabul government, that helps achieve a U.S. goal. the new york times
