Months ago, Bagram Air Base became center stage of the calamitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Since then, foreign policy experts have opined that it will unveil the next act of that tragedy in welcoming growing Chinese interest in Afghanistan. Now, the page has been seemingly turned onto that chapter. This morning, it appears the next stage of that plan may be unfolding following multiple confirmed reports of planes landing at the airfield across social media and mainstream outlets.
The capitulation which placed Bagram Air Base into the hands of the Taliban was enabled by the Biden Administration departing from a component of the Trump-era withdrawal plans that included keeping a contingent of 800 or so special military operatives to work with Afghan Special Forces aimed at curbing the resurgence of the Taliban and other terrorist cells in the country. In the absence of that coordinated effort, Bagram fell from U.S. control before forces could be withdrawn, resulting in a catastrophic departure from the country that has marked the low point of the Biden Administration thus far.
Though none of those reports have been able to confirm that the planes landing at Bagram belong to the Chinese army, their arrival follows the resumption of power at the airfield for the first time since U.S. forces departed in August. The resumption of operations at Bagram follows Taliban forces blocking off public access to the Chinese Embassy in Kabul. The fortification of that embassy is reported to have been in advance of meetings between Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Chen Wenqing, the Minister of State Security for the Chinese since 2016. Wenqing’s reported presence in Kabul comes weeks after another head of intelligence was spotted in Kabul when Pakistani ISI Chief Faiz Hameed had arrived in the capitol to meet with his country’s own ambassador to Afghanistan. The Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister also met with China’s Ambassador to Afghanistan preceding Wenqing’s reported visit. Despite the apparent resumption of operations at Bagram, Taliban officials have shot down the notion that any Chinese security forces or planes have landed at the air base since then.