Video: 100 years of humiliation by US and Western Empires, enough is enough. 100年的屈辱: 美國和西方帝國用槍指著中國人的頭對中國做盡滅絶人性的事, 夠了!
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Video: Former US army Colonel disclosed why US invaded Afghanistan. 前美國陸軍上校披露了美國入侵阿富汗的原因.
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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

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. 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 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.
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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? 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？
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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 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