As the World Turns...

- Dr. Ramesh N. Rao

The Joker In The Pack?

The “inscrutable” Chinese, as the not so benign stereotype of the denizens of the new “super power in the making” goes, have resolved to strengthen ties with the Taliban regime by signing a memorandum of understanding for economic and technical co-operation. The agreement was reported Tuesday, the same day the terrorists hijacked the four planes.

China’s agreement with the Taliban is the most substantial part of a series of contacts that Beijing has had with Afghanistan over the last two years. Of all non-Muslim countries, Beijing now has the best relationship with Kabul, according to Western sources. Officials in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan said they worried that Beijing was trying to curry favour with Kabul at the same time it made a public show of opposing terrorism which seemed to be supported by Afghanistan. Lest it be forgotten, China helped form the Shanghai Co-operative Organisation that joins Russia and three central Asian nations in a loose grouping, with one of its main purposes being to combat cross-border terrorism.

China is also surreptitiously talking to the Taliban to close Afghan-based camps that are used to train Muslim separatists from China’s restive Xinjiang region. Those separatists on occasion re-enter China and launch attacks on China's security services or on civilian targets.

Sweeteners that the Chinese are seeking to provide include renovating an American-built power station. Now, with the Manhattan massacre, a senior American diplomat is said to have cautioned China about trying to “play both sides against the middle and anger the West and other countries." Will it heed this warning, or will it, according to the forecast of some Indian astrologers, join forces with the “other side” in a new war of the worlds?