The China Syndrome: Trump Claims Beijing ‘Going to Take Over’ Bagram Air Base

Last month, China’s ambassador to Afghanistan dismissed reporting in US and UK media alleging that Chinese planes were operating at Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase – the sprawling facility north of Kabul which once housed tens of thousands of US and NATO troops. US forces evacuated Bagram in July, just weeks before the Taliban took the Afghan capital.

Former President Donald Trump has repeated claims that China is set to take over Bagram Air Base in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s “surrender” of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

“They don’t talk about [the] withdrawal anymore. They don’t talk about it purposely. It was so bad that it was killing [Biden]. Two, three days after it ended, they stopped even mentioning it,” Trump said, speaking to Fox News on Sunday.

Trump insisted that if he were president, the US would have held onto Bagram and the Parwan Detention Facility – the base’s onsite military prison containing thousands of jihadist prisoners.

“We would have kept Bagram because it is next to China. And it is one hour away from their nuclear facility, and we gave that up too,” Trump said. “And now China’s going to take over at Bagram, in my opinion."

The former president did not specify which “nuclear facility” he was referring to. Bagram is situated about 40 km north of Kabul, and about 525 km southwest of the Chinese border. The closest Chinese nuclear power plant is situated in Fangchenggang, China, more than 4,000 km to Afghanistan’s southeast. The People’s Republic is also known to have nuclear weapons in the Tibetan plateau in Amdo, and the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology operates in Malan, Xinjiang, about 1,800 km from Bagram.

Trump characterised the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as “really a surrender,” saying it was “the most embarrassing, horrible thing,” and adding that he didn’t know whether the US would “ever psychologically recover from that.”

He insisted that if he were president, the US would have still pulled out, but things would be different. “Don’t forget, I’m the one that brought it down to 2,500 troops. I would have been out too, but we would have been out with strength. We would have come out with strength,” Trump said.

“We would have gotten all the people out, we would have brought all our equipment out, we wouldn’t have had dead soldiers, we wouldn’t have soldiers missing arms and legs,” Trump added, referring to the 13 US troops who were killed and scores more wounded in the deadly late August Daesh-K* attack on the Kabul airport during the final stage of the evacuation, in which over 170 Afghans were also killed.

“It was time to get out, but the way [Biden] got out was such a disaster,” the former president summarised, going on to blame the generals and saying “they should have never allowed that to happen.”

US Central Command Chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley insisted in hearings on Capitol Hill in September that they recommended leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan indefinitely. The Biden administration resisted the idea amid fears that the Taliban would resume its attacks on US troops if they did not pull out.

The US and the Taliban reached an agreement in Doha in February 2020 committing Washington to establish a timetable for withdrawal of May 2021, in exchange for a ceasefire, and a commitment by the militants to hold peace negotiations with the Kabul government. Upon taking office in January, Biden extended the withdrawal deadline to September, with the withdrawal starting in May.

The US and NATO evacuation from Afghanistan was interrupted in mid-August after Kabul unexpectedly fell to the Taliban and the Afghan government and security forces disintegrated.

Trump has repeatedly blasted the Biden administration for its decision to quietly evacuate Bagram amid the broader pullout from Afghanistan. US troops were yanked from the base in early July under the cover of night, with Afghan security forces only showing up after they were already gone, and after looters managed to make off with some base property.

At the height of US and NATO operations in Afghanistan, Bagram housed tens of thousands of troops and served as a logistics and transport hub through which forces could be deployed throughout the country.

Last month, US and UK media reported that Bagram was “active again,” with aircraft, possibly Chinese, said to be flying into and out of the facility. Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu dismissed the reports of a PRC presence at the base as “fabricated rumours,” suggesting the claims were created with an “ulterior purpose” in mind. He did not elaborate on what this ulterior purpose might be.

China has sought to establish a cordial informal relationship with the Taliban in the interests of border security, cross-border aid and trade, and, potentially, securing access to trillions of dollars-worth of rare-earth metals believed to be trapped under the country’s soil. Beijing has made no rush to formally recognise the Taliban government, however.

No country has yet to formally recognise the Taliban government since the militants took power in mid-August. The last time the Islamists ruled the country between 1996 and 2001, only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized their legitimacy.

* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.