China's strategy in Afghanistan.

solarz said:

You know the Soviets were the first sponsors of Xinjiang terrorism?

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In the 1930s which is almost a century ago, predating the PRC, and was done to the ROC. When you are weak everyone wants a piece of you. That's the price of being weak.

Nobody has the capability to punish all past offenders, only those who continue to engage in offenses. I'm not saying to militarily intervene against the Taliban or to even refuse to work with them. But keep eyes open, price risk into every transaction and be highly vigilant against threats.

FairAndUnbiased said:

Taliban already have a terrible record when they accepted foreign money to destroy the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and plunged a modern society into darkness.

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Taliban as an organisation was founded in 1994 AFTER the fall of Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992.

Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was one of the many fighting parties sponsored by the U.S. But far from the major ones.

If you really have to blame somebody for bringing modern society to darkness, it is US to be blamed first and most. Besides, Taliban is not an asset of anybody, not even Al Qaeda. The U.S. thinks they own an asset, but the "asset" is using U.S. for their own goals. It was just marriage of convenience. Nobody went rogue because nobody committed to the same vision.

It is harmful to simply label somebody else based on some sort of moral standard. Simply put, it is non of anybody's business to judge others. U.S. should not, neither should China. The way to handle your neighborhood is 1. have a strong fence, 2. deal with it with mutual respect, 3. don't judge.

FairAndUnbiased said:

In the 1930s which is almost a century ago, predating the PRC, and was done to the ROC. When you are weak everyone wants a piece of you. That's the price of being weak.

Nobody has the capability to punish all past offenders, only those who continue to engage in offenses. I'm not saying to militarily intervene against the Taliban or to even refuse to work with them. But keep eyes open, price risk into every transaction and be highly vigilant against threats.

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Not true. The Soviets started funding Xinjiang separatism and terrorism in the 1960's after relations with the PRC deteriorated.

FairAndUnbiased said:

In the 1930s which is almost a century ago, predating the PRC, and was done to the ROC. When you are weak everyone wants a piece of you. That's the price of being weak.

Nobody has the capability to punish all past offenders, only those who continue to engage in offenses. I'm not saying to militarily intervene against the Taliban or to even refuse to work with them. But keep eyes open, price risk into every transaction and be highly vigilant against threats.

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I think the argument that some other members including me have with you is because your wording "go back to medieval era beliefs" and "plunged a modern society into darkness". These wordings are emotional and judgmental. These wordings also singled out Taliban from rebel groups from most other countries. That gave others the impression opposite to what you said above in bold texts.

I don't want to be nit picking but sometimes wording is critical to convey the true intended meaning.

taxiya said:

I think the argument that some other members including me have with you is because your wording "go back to medieval era beliefs" and "plunged a modern society into darkness". These wordings are emotional and judgmental. These wordings also singled out Taliban from rebel groups from most other countries. That gave others the impression opposite to what you said above in bold texts.

I don't want to be nit picking but sometimes wording is critical to convey the true intended meaning.

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The risk for working with extremists is higher thus more caution should be exercised. You cannot trust them to not harm their own interests if it hurts you more.

I don't want to see Chinese getting killed or Chinese companies getting burned by bad deals whether it be with the Taliban or the US.

solarz said:

Not true. The Soviets started funding Xinjiang separatism and terrorism in the 1960's after relations with the PRC deteriorated.

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The only knowledge I have of Soviet sponsoring separatism was in the 1930s and 1940s for the Second Turkestan Republic.

FairAndUnbiased said:

In the 1930s which is almost a century ago, predating the PRC, and was done to the ROC. When you are weak everyone wants a piece of you. That's the price of being weak.

Nobody has the capability to punish all past offenders, only those who continue to engage in offenses. I'm not saying to militarily intervene against the Taliban or to even refuse to work with them. But keep eyes open, price risk into every transaction and be highly vigilant against threats.

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That's my advice to every one of thier neighbors

Have friendly relationship but be careful with y intelligence gathering etc

ougoah said:

Some really judgy tones here.

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Some lack of reading comprehension as well:

ZeEa5KPul said:

And for the record, I wholeheartedly and unreservedly support China working with the worst filth on the planet if that's in the national interest.

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ougoah said:

We'll have to wait and see how the Taliban's domestic policy eventually shape out.

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Yeah, we should not prejudge the possibility that the Taliban will turn Afghanistan into Denmark. Any other fantastically improbable events you'd like me to withhold judgement on?

The Taliban is not a blank slate. They have a history that can be consulted. They also have an ideology that they proclaim openly and loudly.

ougoah said:

We'll have to wait and see how the Taliban will behave with neighbours. China doesn't want to antagonise the ruling group.

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Did I advocate otherwise?

ougoah said:

Working with whoever is in charge towards building some relation based on mutual agreement and benefit is the way forward for bilateral relations.

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Did I advocate otherwise? That I think China should work with scum if it's in its interest to do so doesn't mean I have to switch my brain off and call scum something else.

ougoah said:

Don't play with fire like India.

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Don't spend too much time in the Ladakh thread. Excessive arguments with Jai Hind types might cloud your judgement about the soundness of my position.

taxiya said:

It is harmful to simply label somebody else based on some sort of moral standard. Simply put, it is non of anybody's business to judge others. U.S. should not, neither should China. The way to handle your neighborhood is 1. have a strong fence, 2. deal with it with mutual respect, 3. don't judge.

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1 and 2 are perfectly sound pieces of advice, even if "mutual respect" is a bit much. 3 is committing a self-lobotomy.

ZeEa5KPul said:

1 and 2 are perfectly sound pieces of advice, even if "mutual respect" is a bit much. 3 is committing a self-lobotomy.

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To make myself clearer. "don't judge" meant "don't be judgmental". Being judgmental is bad judgment.

My meaning is reflected in the other post #74
"These wordings are emotional and judgmental. "

Your judgment on Taliban based on their track record either domestically or against USSR and USA have no barrings on China because China is not invader. Neither does Taliban's ideology have any barrings on relationship with China because China does not base its diplomacy on religion or ideology. If ideology was center of the Chinese thinking, China would have treated the whole western word as Taliban. The ideology based diplomacy is precisely what US is doing and failing.

This serves as a warning to everyone else:

When master has to pick between canine dogs and human dogs, they prefer the canine dogs.