The Middle Kingdom Ends Its Silence On Obama & Afghanistan.

"There is a fascinating article about China's Afghanistan policy in the Asia Times, written by Indian fmr. Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar. After long avoidance, China's given voice to its interests in the Himalayan foothills. Despite the years of "Red Menace" hype, China prefers to act out of a path of least resistance, being an anti-US located between (US-Russia) extremes and neighboring conflicts. For this reason, the old moniker "The Middle Kingdom" retains relevance. Bhadrakumar begins with the Xiaoping quote, and ends with this paragraph:

It seems China has no problem with such an agenda [of occupation]. China will "hide its capacities" - to quote Deng - even as the US and Russia collide and negate each other and eventually drop down in exhaustion. As The People's Daily concludes, Afghanistan is known as the "tomb of empires". Therefore, China must focus on securing its position and simply bide its time - a strategy Deng could surely appreciate.

Much of this US tension with Russia stems from Afghanistan (tsarist and Soviet Russia's backyard... and cemetery) and with the US boycott of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is a rising 21st century intergovernmental group comprised of China, Russia and former Soviet Central Asian nations. As China is a stakeholder in both the SCO and the US system, it stands nothing to lose by waiting, and not antagonizing Russia."
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