Countries like Afghanistan badly depend on other countries on a number of occasions. In order to meet its expenses, it looks forward for the financial support from other countries, in order to tackle the threat of terrorism, it depends on training and material support of other countries and in order to boost economic activities in the country, it depends on other nations’ investments. No doubt, since the inception of a democratic government, many nations of the world extended help and cooperation with the country but unfortunately, majority of this help came through NGOs and also went back to the pockets of NGO employees and so majority of these helps turned out to be meaningless and did not achieve the desired results. However, the help that could have helped Afghans as how to catch fish could have been more meaningful instead of giving them fish.
In this scenario, the increasing role of our friend and neighbor nation China in the long-term sustainability and progress of Afghanistan is both exemplary and appreciable. Instead of pouring money on unnecessary projects, China insisted to its private and government sector to make plans and projects to strengthen the infrastructure of the country and make investments so that the country may once again rise on its feet. It is the reason why, there are large numbers of Chinese companies with long term investments in Afghanistan. The copper project of Mes Aynak is one of the examples where a state-owned Chinese company is planning to work for many decades, providing jobs to thousands to Afghans. The project has been made controversial by the nations whose companies lost the bid by terming it disastrous for the adjacent Buddha temples but it is a fact that at present, Afghans need jobs and bread instead of historic treasures. But the company has also assured complete protection of these Buddha statues and temples.
In the northern part of the country, another Chinese company is busy in extraction of oil and gas. According to geologists, Afghanistan contains vast reserves of oil and gas in its northern areas and their extraction can change the fate of the country. The Chinese company has made investment which would not only provide the country with billions of dollars of foreign exchange but would also give birth to a long-chained series of economic activities that would bring true prosperity in the country.
Two Chinese companies, ZTE and Huawei are the major telecom service providers in the country and due to their activities, government collects millions of dollars in taxes. Similarly, large numbers of people have been given job in their offices and sites.
Afghanistan also imports goods of billions of dollars from China and Chinese products make the major part of the Afghan market. In the same way, Chinese universities have given educational scholarships to hundreds of Afghan students who would then return to country to practically use their knowledge for the progress of the country.
Similarly, China arranges tours and trainings to Afghan professionals like journalists, military officers, top government officials and others. These tours and trainings have made great contribution in uplifting the level of efficiency of these professionals in their respective fields.
However, it doesn’t mean that Chinese government has not extended any financial assistance to the government of Afghanistan. Since the inception of a democratic government, China has given direct assistance of millions of dollars to Afghan government and this process is still continuing and Afghans are still getting benefitted from this assistance.
Along with the assistance in fields of commerce and finance, Chinese government has played an important role on the political grounds. The government of China has been busy in making all the efforts to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. Last year, China hosted the Conference of Istanbul Process on Afghanistan and due to the efforts of Chinese Premiere, the world powers once again made encouraging promises not to leave Afghanistan alone and extend all the help in this regard.
On the request of Afghan government, China is also busy in arranging talks with Taliban leaders so that they should be brought on the table of negotiations. In this regard, a delegation of Taliban leaders visited China. After these continuous efforts, there are news of the resumption of peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government.
On the international arena as well, the role of China on financial and political grounds have been absolutely neutral and positive. Unfortunately, this quality is not much visible in other influential powers of the world who have always adopted the policy of intervention and military resolution of different problems of the world. China is also trying to deal sensibly the problem that has emerged inside its borders. Due to the interferences and conspiracies of international spying agencies, efforts were made to create disturbance in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China but Chinese government dealt it wisely by giving more and more incentives and autonomy to the ethnic minority group of Uyghurs in the area.
In the same way, Chinese companies are making huge investments in different parts of the world. The most important and positive aspect of these investments is to make investment without any discrimination of the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of countries where the investments are made. It is the reason why, a country may have political differences with China but its companies are busy in doing business with Chinese companies and it is also the reason of the gigantic expansion of Chinese economy.
However, China has to offer the best lesson on the political grounds. Almost all the countries of the world believe that their security would be ensured by the destruction of their enemy. This negative dogma has given birth to numerous wars and conflicts in the world. It is the reason why, even in the era of scientific enlightenment and dialogue, many parts of the world are under the blazes of war and terrorism. In the same way, different countries are busy in stealthy plans and hidden agendas to weaken others. This has resulted in the division of the world on the basis of religion, geographic locations, blocs, political thoughts and others. Similarly, the important powers of the world believe in political and military intervention in the issues of other nations and countries and it is due to this reason that billions of dollars have been wasted on war and conflict and the world is getting more unstable and unsafe with every passing day.
However, China holds a unique record of not making any such negative intervention in the affairs of other countries. It is the reason why, China is given due respect and has won the trust of the world nations by being neutral and due to this unique quality, China can be called the only nation without any enemies and it has earned countless friends by its efforts in promotion of political understanding and commercial prosperity. This strategy of China needs to be adopted by all the nations of the world if they want a peaceful and stable world in future.