Chinese police can bring order to wild Afghanistan

• Source: Global Times
• [00:53 December 24 2009]
• Comments

The Chinese government will not be taken in by the bluffing of Western strategists. However, sending police to Afghanistan is a sensible option, which would morally support the Afghan government to achieve social stability.

Afghanistan is full of trails of destruction now because, thanks to its strategic position, it has either been at war or threatened by war for two centuries.

Successive invasions by superpowers such as the UK, the Soviet Union and the US destroyed the peace, as well as wrecking the opportunities for the Afghan people to develop. Peace in Afghanistan will make further development possible.

The first priority now is to help Afghanistan maintain social stability, and then use comprehensive measures such as national coordination, armistice agreements, international aid and peace-keeping to achieve stability.

This is the best timing for China to exert international responsibility and improve its national image.

Sending police to Afghanistan both improves China's reputation as a reliable global power and makes a substantive contribution to the peace of the surrounding areas.

Sending forces in this way will be dangerous, to be sure, and even full of strategic risks for a country.

However, a rising power must be prepared to take risks, and have the ability to do so.

The author is a Beijing-based journalist. globaltimesopinion@ yahoo.com