As US exits Afghanistan, China prepares for threat of security void

Even as U.S.-China ties fray, Beijing is growing increasingly concerned over a security vacuum emerging in Afghanistan after America withdraws from the war-torn country.

With the Sept. 11 deadline for the Americans to withdraw getting closer, China will no longer be able to rely on a U.S. presence to quell some of the security threats posed by Afghanistan on its southwestern border.

"China was a key beneficiary of the U.S. force presence in Afghanistan, and that will soon become obvious," said Lisa Curtis, director of the Indo-Pacfic security program at the Center for New American Security, a Washington-based think tank. "With the full withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan, China will have to find a way to protect its own [counterterrorism] interests."

Read the full story and more from Nikkei Asia.