China is staging an extensive air and sea military exercise near Taiwan in response to “provocations” by Taiwan independence forces, which it described as the biggest source of security risks across the Taiwan Strait.

China is staging an extensive air and sea military exercise near Taiwan in response to “provocations” by Taiwan independence forces, which it described as the biggest source of security risks across the Taiwan Strait. 中國正在台灣附近舉行大規模的海空軍事演習，以應對台獨勢力的“挑釁”，稱這是台海最大的安全風險來源.

Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow? US treachery scares DPP by GT staff reporters Aug 16 2021

Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow? US treachery scares DPP by GT staff reporters Aug 16 2021

With chaotic scenes at Kabul airport of hundreds and thousands of people fleeing after the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan grabbing global attention and many calling the evacuation of US diplomats another “Saigon moment,” more discussions emerged online over “who’s next” amid the US failed commitment.

For years, Washington has been turning its foreign policy into ideology-driven geopolitical games, and now the rapidly changing situation in Afghanistan has even worried some in the island of Taiwan and sounded a warning bell to secessionists there, as it’s not the first time the US has abandoned its allies and the so-called alliances, which are made use of only as chess pieces in Washington’s global strategy.

The Taliban took over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday as the country’s president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Many were shocked at the speed with which the Taliban took control as the US-backed government collapsed, and they compared the scenes in Kabul of US diplomats being taken to safety by helicopters to the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, when US Marines burned sensitive documents on the roof of the US embassy in Saigon. The Washington Post also pointed out that the Taliban’s stunningly swift advances across the country have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of US foreign policy promises and drawing harsh criticism even from some of its closest allies.

Taiwan is nervous

“Yesterday’s Saigon, today’s Afghanistan, and tomorrow’s Taiwan?” read some online posts by internet users in the island of Taiwan, implying that the so-called alliance that Taiwan has forged with the US is nothing but an empty promise that will eventually “leave the Taiwan people hurting alone.”

An Op-Ed in local Taiwan news site udn.com said that the unexpected end in Afghanistan has “shocked” US allies and partners, who have become wary of putting the safety of Taiwan in the hands of the US, as the latter may pull the same tricks played in Kabul.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan will also have a global impact, especially weighing on its image and credibility, the Op-Ed in a Taipei-based news site said, as Washington’s strength in maintaining the global order will be challenged, and the power confrontation in the Indo-Pacific Strategy targeting China will be questioned.

“They should say the day before yesterday, Vietnam, yesterday, Taiwan and today, Afghanistan. Wasn’t the island abandoned by the US in 1979?” Chang Ching, a research fellow at the Society for Strategic Studies based in the island, told the Global Times on Monday.

As part of its latest efforts to play the “Taiwan card” in countering China, the Biden administration recently announced it would hold a virtual Summit for Democracy, which excited the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority of Taiwan. Since taking office in January, US President Joe Biden has taken various measures to demonstrate its deterrent against China, such as deploying military aircraft to the island, sending warships across the Taiwan Straits several times and dispatching senior officials to visit the island, blatantly playing the “Taiwan card” to ruffle China’s feathers.

However, the failure of the US in Afghanistan should serve as a warning to the secessionists in the island, who have to understand that they cannot count on Washington, as Afghanistan is not the first place where the US abandoned its allies, nor will it be the last, experts warned.

Credibility tarnished

The aftermath of its failure in Afghanistan will further weigh on the Biden administration, as it is still struggling to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, which will put the US government in an awkward position not only at home but also overseas, as the total defeat of the US has dealt a fatal blow to Biden’s political career and the Democrats’ credibility, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Monday.

“The US’ fleeing action is a warning to the Taiwan secessionists, or rather, a forecast,” Li said. He noted that if the island of Taiwan continues on a path misled by secessionists to directly confront the Chinese mainland, the US will cast Taiwan aside just as it has done with Vietnam, and now Afghanistan.

The Associated Press said in a report on Sunday that the 20-year war in Afghanistan was the US’ longest and most expensive one, and generations of Americans will have to be burdened by the cost of paying it off. As of 2020, the estimated cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the US has debt-financed has reached $2 trillion, the report said.

While observers doubted the geopolitical value the island of Taiwan could deliver to the US in confronting China, some also raised questions about how much the Biden administration, which upholds the one-China policy, is willing to pay for the interests of Taiwan secessionists compared to its heavy investment in time and resources in Afghanistan.

“Those who have a clear mind should understand that Taiwan residents can’t rely on the US. However, given the ideology-driven influence, some observers may see the situation in the island as being different from that in Afghanistan, but there’s one thing in common – America’s empty promise,” Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Monday.

The failure of America in Afghanistan will surely deala heavy blow to the Taiwan residents, and the DPP-led green camp may try to downplay its impact, Jin said, noting that the US retreat showed that it always puts its own national interests above everything else without taking care of its own allies.

One media outlet in Taiwan also pointed out that the key issue is if a war breaks out across the Taiwan Straits, there will be doubts over whether the US will honor its commitments and intervene militarily, as the US’ “blurry” policy on the island and its snap decision on the Afghanistan issue have left its commitment to Taiwan “full of question marks.”

The US retreat from Afghanistan has taught the island of Taiwan an important lesson, that is, the cross-Straits relations must be resolved by Taiwan itself, as the US may choose to abandon the island at any time according to its own core interests, Chang Ya-chung, a Taipei-based political scientist and member of the Kuomintang, told the Global Times on Monday.

Furthermore, the US has never promised to send troops if a military conflict occurs across the Taiwan Straits, and only said that it would sell weapons to Taiwan to increase its military strength, Chang noted.

Recalling history, Chang said that the US abandoned the Kuomintang authority in the 1940s after World War II, roped Taiwan in during the Cold War to cater to its own needs, but cast it away again in the late 1970s.

Chang also emphasized that in face of the crisis, both the mainland and the island should keep in mind that we should not try to seek the answer from the past, but to find a way out in the future.

The rapid collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans from Kabul could not only be “a powerful shock” for Washington’s allies and partners in Asia, but also complicate China’s challenges in its regional rivalry with the US, say observers.

The rapid collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans from Kabul could not only be “a powerful shock” for Washington’s allies and partners in Asia, but also complicate China’s challenges in its regional rivalry with the US, say observers. 美國支持的阿富汗政府的迅速垮台以及美國人從喀布爾的混亂撤離，不僅可能對華盛頓的亞洲盟友和合作夥伴構成“強烈衝擊”，而且還會使中國在與美國的地區競爭中面臨的挑戰複雜化。 觀察員。

Video: San Francisco police discuss crime situation in San Francisco and SF Bay Area at the office of CAAC in SF Chinatown

Video: San Francisco police discuss crime situation in San Francisco and SF Bay Area at the office of CAAC in SF Chinatown 美國加州舊金山警方在舊金山唐人街美國華商總會辦公室討論舊金山和舊金山灣區的犯罪情況.
https://vimeo.com/587948633
https://youtu.be/F-DY9y3TTZI
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/548768543013142/?d=n

China could participate in post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan: experts

China could participate in post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan: experts 中國可以參與阿富汗戰後重建：專家 by Yang Sheng Aug 15 2021

Taliban militants are seen inside the Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 13, 2021. Taliban militants on Friday claimed to have taken control over key southern Afghan cities of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, after weeks of heavy clashes between the Taliban and government forces.

The Afghan Taliban’s military offensive has been moving faster than observers worldwide have expected, and it looks like it is just a matter of time before Kabul is taken, as latest reports from foreign media showed that the Taliban fighters have entered the capital and are negotiating with Afghan government officials on a peaceful transition of power.

Although some voices from the West are expecting China to play a bigger role in Afghanistan after the sudden US pullout, even are speculating that China might send troops to fill the vacuum left by the US, Chinese experts said such speculation is totally groundless, and the most China can do is to evacuate Chinese nationals if a massive humanitarian crisis occurs, or to contribute to post-war reconstruction and development, pushing forward projects under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) when safety and stability are restored in the war-torn country.

The US can’t just leave and take no more responsibility in the region, and if Afghanistan encounters serious humanitarian problems, such as a refugee crisis, Washington should cooperate with other regional countries and at least provide economic assistance, because it was the US that has created this mess, experts noted.

If the Taliban builds a new country after it takes complete control, it should keep its promise to cut off all ties with terrorists, extremists and separatists – the “Three Evils” – in the region, and make sure Afghanistan does not become a breeding ground for those forces. Only by doing so can it win more recognition worldwide than it had before the US invasion after 9/11, Chinese analysts said. They noted that if Afghanistan becomes a breeding ground for the “Three Evils,” the UN Security Council may consider sending a UN peacekeeping force into the country.

US humiliation

According to AP, Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday and sought the unconditional surrender of the central government, officials said, as Afghans and foreigners alike raced for the exit, signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and First Vice President Amrullah Saleh have left the country and headed to Tajikistan, from where they are going to a third country, media reported.

The beleaguered Afghan central government, meanwhile, hopes for an interim administration, but increasingly had few cards to play… Helicopters buzzed overhead, some apparently evacuating personnel at the US Embassy. Several other Western missions were also preparing to get staff out, AP reported.

Many netizens worldwide compared the current situation with the US evacuation from Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam in 1975, to mock the US failure and pointless military actions in the developing world, as well as those people who still have wishful thinking when it comes to the US government.

Some Chinese web users said on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo that “those people who deeply believe in the US never learn the lesson, they just get abandoned by Americans like rubbish,” and “the 20-year war ends like a joke. American soldiers died for nothing, the Taliban returned, and the only change is more people have died and American taxpayers have wasted their money to feed the US military-industrial tycoons.”

Earlier the same day, according to Al Jazeera, the Taliban had taken control of Afghanistan’s Jalalabad without a fight, according to officials and a resident, effectively leaving the capital Kabul as the last major urban area under government control.

Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Sunday that “the Taliban’s progress is faster than expected. Previously, many observers worldwide expressed concern that the Taliban’s military actions would cause a massive humanitarian crisis, but in fact, the Taliban’s performance has not been bad so far.”

“We didn’t see massacres or women get abused, and most major cities were captured without a fight. There are some accusations against the Taliban, but we didn’t see hard evidence yet. The US embassy’s evacuation also didn’t get interrupted or attacked even though the Taliban troops have already entered Kabul. All of this shows that the war won’t end violently,” Zhu said.

On July 28, 2021, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Tianjin with the visiting delegation led by head of the Afghan Taliban Political Commission Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The heads of the Afghan Taliban’s religious council and publicity committee were also part of the delegation.

Wang pointed out, “We hope the Afghan Taliban will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations including ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) and resolutely and effectively combat them to remove obstacles, play a positive role and create enabling conditions for security, stability, development and cooperation in the region.”

Baradar told Wang in Tianjin that “the Afghan Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China. The Afghan Taliban believes that Afghanistan should develop friendly relations with neighboring countries and the international community.”

Zhu said that the world needs to be prepared to deal with a new Afghanistan under Taliban control, and the key is whether the Taliban would keep its promise to make sure no force can use their country’s soil to threaten other countries in the region, and be more inclusive rather than extreme, and then more countries will recognize the country.

A US Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday. Helicopters are landing at the US embassy there as diplomatic vehicles leave the compound as the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital.

What can China do?

In Tianjin last month, Wang also said that “the hasty withdrawal of the US and NATO troops from Afghanistan actually marks the failure of the US policy on Afghanistan. The Afghan people now have an important opportunity to achieve national stability and development.”

But some voices from the West still want to make excuses for the US’ humiliation. Reuters published an analysis on Sunday entitled: As Taliban advances, China lays groundwork to accept an awkward reality.

The article said the Taliban’s momentum as US forces withdraw is awkward for China, which has blamed religious extremism as a destabilizing force in its western Xinjiang region and has long worried that Taliban-controlled territory would be used to harbor separatist forces.

In fact, the US is the one that should have felt embarrassed and awkward, said Chinese analysts, and the reason why some Western media or analysts made such comments is that they want China to repeat the mistake made by the US – “stepping on the ground of the graveyard of empires.”

Zhu said the West is trying to set traps for China. “The current situation is a mess for the US, and will impact countries in the region, and then the impact will come to us [China]. If the Taliban controls the country immediately and brings about stability, this would not be bad news. Extremism and terrorism would be restrained in a stable country that realizes a peaceful transfer without chaos.”

Of course, some “Three Evils” forces in the region will be encouraged, but Afghanistan’s impact on China should not be exaggerated, and the US is the one with the headache, Zhu said. He noted that other anti-government armed forces in the region are unlikely to replicate the progress that Taliban has made in Afghanistan.

Pan Guang, a senior expert on counter-terrorism and Afghan studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that “in order to prevent the situation from spilling over, China has already started counter-terrorism cooperation with other countries in the region including Tajikistan and Pakistan to strengthen border control.”

What China could do is participate in the post-war reconstruction and provide investment to help the country’s future development, Pan said.

“The US can’t just run away. It should also take responsibility to rebuild the country and provide assistance. Washington should be supportive of international cooperation on anti-drug and refugee issues,” Pan said. “If Afghanistan encounters a huge crisis in the future, the UN Security Council would need to be united and pass a resolution to send a peacekeeping force, and this would need the US to be supportive and responsible as well.”

Mandarin video: What can we learn from the quick collapse of Afghanistan and the collapse of US Empire?

Mandarin video: What can we learn from the quick collapse of Afghanistan and the collapse of US Empire? 我們可以從阿富汗的快速崩潰和美帝國的崩潰中學到什麼？
https://vimeo.com/587880735
https://youtu.be/m2yYEkYhY4Y
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/548699269686736/?d=n

Afghanistan collapse, US consulate QUICK exit claimed not Saigon Vietnam in 1975. Really? Where are the American’s superheroes come to the rescue? Are they fake like the freedom democracy human rights and the rules of laws Americans are selling to the world?

Afghanistan collapse, US consulate QUICK exit claimed not Saigon Vietnam in 1975. Really? Where are the American’s superheroes come to the rescue? Are they fake like the freedom democracy human rights and the rules of laws Americans are selling to the world? 阿富汗崩潰，美國領事館人員逃跑聲稱不是1975年的越南西貢, 真的嗎？ 美國人的超級英雄在哪裡？也跑了的嗎? 它們是否像美國向世界出售的自由民主人權和法律規則一樣是虛假的? 美國加州舊金山世界日報 World Journal Newspaper San Francisco, August 16 2021

Afghan reporter: regrets to have trusted US. Huffpost in San Francisco: 20-YEAR ‘NATION-BUILDING’ COLLAPSES IN DAYS

Afghan reporter: regrets to have trusted US. Huffpost in San Francisco: 20-YEAR ‘NATION-BUILDING’ COLLAPSES IN DAYS 阿富汗記者:後悔信任美國. 舊金山的赫芬頓郵報:20 年的“國家建設”在幾天內崩潰

We are witnessing a mirror image of Taipei at Kabul. Taiwan Province arm force will lay down their arms to welcome PLA just like in Afghanistan. And English Tsai and her gang will escape like Afghanistan President. Washington Post: Afghanistan’s collapse leaves allies questioning U.S. resolve on other fronts.

We are witnessing a mirror image of Taipei at Kabul. Taiwan Province arm force will lay down their arms to welcome PLA just like in Afghanistan. And English Tsai and her gang will escape like Afghanistan President. Washington Post: Afghanistan’s collapse leaves allies questioning U.S. resolve on other fronts. 我們正在喀布爾目睹台北的鏡像。 台灣省軍隊將像在阿富汗一樣放下武器迎接解放軍。 而蔡英文和她的團伙會像阿富汗總統一樣逃走. 華盛頓郵報：阿富汗的崩潰讓盟國質疑美國在其他方面的決心. by Liz Sly August 16 2021

LONDON — The Taliban’s stunningly swift advances across Afghanistan have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of U.S. foreign policy promises and drawing harsh criticisms even from some of the United States’ closest allies.


As Taliban fighters entered Kabul and the United States scrambled to evacuate its citizens, concerns grew that the unfolding chaos could create a haven for terrorists, unleash a major humanitarian disaster and trigger a new refugee exodus.

U.S. allies complain that they were not fully consulted on a policy decision that potentially puts their own national security interests at risk — in contravention of President Biden’s promises to recommit to global engagement.

And many around the world are wondering whether they could rely on the United States to fulfill long-standing security commitments stretching from Europe to East Asia.

“Whatever happened to ‘America is back’?” said Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Defense Committee in the British Parliament, citing Biden’s foreign policy promise to rebuild alliances and restore U.S. prestige damaged during the Trump administration.

“People are bewildered that after two decades of this big, high-tech power intervening, they are withdrawing and effectively handing the country back to the people we went in to defeat,” Ellwood said. “This is the irony. How can you say America is back when we’re being defeated by an insurgency armed with no more than [rocket-propelled grenades], land mines and AK-47s?”

As much as its military capabilities, the United States’ decades-old role as a defender of democracies and freedoms is again in jeopardy, said Rory Stewart, who was Britain’s minister for international development in the Conservative government of Theresa May. “The Western democracy that seemed to be the inspiration for the world, the beacon for the world, is turning its back,” Stewart said.


Britain has voiced some of the bluntest criticisms of the pullout, which is unusual for a country that regards itself as the United States’ closest ally. Britain made the biggest contribution to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and suffered the highest number of casualties after the United States.

In comments Friday, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace predicted civil war and the return of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization whose attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, prompted the U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan.

“I feel this was not the right time or decision to make,” he told Sky News. “Of course al-Qaeda will probably come back, and certainly it would like that kind of breeding ground.”

“Strategically, it causes a lot of problems, and as an international community, it’s very difficult . . . what we’re seeing today,” he added.

Rivals of the United States also have expressed dismay. Among them is China, which fears that the ascent of an extremist Islamist government on its western border will foster unrest in the adjoining province of Xinjiang, where Beijing has waged sweeping crackdowns on the Uyghur population that have been denounced by the West.

Washington “bears an unavoidable responsibility for the current situation in Afghanistan,” Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, said earlier this month. “It cannot leave and shed the burden on regional countries.”


Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected criticisms that the withdrawal damages U.S. credibility. He said staying mired in a conflict that is not in the “national interest” would do far more damage.

“Most of our strategic competitors around the world would like nothing better than for us to remain in Afghanistan for another year, five years, 10 years, and have those resources dedicated to being in the midst of a civil war,” Blinken told CNN. “It’s simply not in our interest.”

But the manner and implementation of the withdrawal has left allies feeling betrayed, said Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Germany’s government, which withdrew its troops in June and is evacuating its embassy, has refrained from overt criticism of the U.S. withdrawal.

Nonetheless, some German officials and lawmakers are seething at Washington’s failure to consult coalition partners such as Berlin, Clüver Ashbrook said. Germany is particularly concerned about the potential for an exodus of Afghan refugees similar to the influx of 2015, when more than 1 million migrants, spurred largely by the war in Syria, surged into Europe, with many headed for Germany.

“The Biden administration came to office promising an open exchange, a transparent exchange with its allies. They said the transatlantic relationship would be pivotal,” she said. “As it is, they’re playing lip service to the transatlantic relationship and still believe European allies should fall into line with U.S. priorities.”

“We’re back to the transatlantic relationship of old, where the Americans dictate everything. . . . ‘Yes we want to partner with you, but in reality, we want to be able to tell you what to do and when,’ ” she added.

The United States’ Arab allies, which have long counted on the U.S. military to come to their aid in the event of an attack by Iran, also have faced questions over whether they will be able to rely on the United States.

“What’s happening in Afghanistan is raising alarm bells everywhere,” said Riad Kahwaji, who heads the Inegma security consultancy in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts one of the biggest American military contingents in the Middle East.


“The U.S.’s credibility as an ally has been in question for a while,” he said. “We see Russia fighting all the way to protect the Assad regime [in Syria], and now the Americans are pulling out and leaving a big chaos in Afghanistan.”

Clüver Ashbrook said Biden’s plan to build an alliance of democracies to counter the influence of China and Russia is also in doubt, now that the West will no longer maintain a significant presence in Central Asia.

For China and Russia, there is opportunity as well as concern in the departure of U.S. troops. Both Moscow and Beijing have hosted Taliban delegations in recent weeks in an attempt to pave the way for a post-American future in the region.

The humiliating conclusion of the two-decade U.S. venture into Afghanistan will aid their efforts to persuade many governments to seek out relationships elsewhere, analysts say.

In a commentary directed at Hong Kong, China’s state-run Global Times cited Afghanistan in a signal to democracy activists not to heed repeated American promises to “stand by” Hong Kong.
“It has been proven repeatedly that whomever U.S. politicians claim to stand with will face bad luck, plunge into social unrest and suffer severe consequences,” the commentary said.

Russia has been struck by the speed of the unraveling of the U.S.-installed government in Kabul, said Fyodor Lukyanov, the chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and editor in chief of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs.

The decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which ended in 1989, is widely remembered as a failure, one that leaves Russia in no mood to reengage too closely with Afghanistan, he said.
But at least, Lukyanov noted, the government left behind by the Soviets survived for three years after the withdrawal of Red Army forces.
“We believe our failure was big, but it seems the Americans achieved an even bigger failure,” he said.

John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.