China's Increasing Security Buffer on Its Western Frontier

MIN READJan 11, 2018 | 09:00 GMT

The Wakhan corridor is the fingerlike strip of land that extends toward China's Xinjiang province, with Tajikistan to its north and Pakistan to the south.

(IStock)

An increasingly important component of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative can be found in the Central Asian corridor that connects China and Afghanistan. China has been expanding its economic and security cooperation in Central Asia in recent years. Reports this week that China plans to build a military base for Afghanistan's armed forces in the northeastern province of Badakhshan suggest that the strategic yet perennially unstable country is quickly following through on the plan....