The strategically vital air base that Joe Biden abandoned to the Taliban has been re-opened and is being used by military aircraft, reports say.
The Daily Mail on Sunday cited multiple reports of military planes arriving at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan just hours after images emerged showing that power was restored for the first time since Team Biden ordered the evacuation of the base in July.
The reports, which have not been confirmed, suggest that the aircraft seen arriving at Bagram are Chinese. The Taliban are not thought to possess the expertise needed to power the base or maintain and fly military aircraft.
Images circulating on social media appear to show the air base’s floodlights on amid reports that several military planes had taken off and landed in a matter of hours.
Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank, said the communist regime in Beijing would likely be very interested in occupying Bagram following the U.S. withdrawal.
"Given their past experience, the Chinese must be eager to get their hands on whatever the U.S. has left at the base," Yun Sun said.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned last month that China likely had its sights set on the base.
"We need to watch China, because I think you are going to see China make a move for Bagram Air Force Base," Haley told Fox News.
Former Trump intelligence advisor Kash Patel told Geostrategy-Direct.com in late August that both Chinese and Russian people and equipment were arriving in Afghanistan days after the Bagram "surrender."
"They are literally dropping stuff in by helicopters. I mean there are Russian and Chinese people coming in," he said.
Patel explained the significance of the Bagram Air Base as follows:
Bagram as you know is the brain center of our operation in Afghanistan. It’s what the U.S. Government owns wholly and without the Afghan government. Multiple runways. It’s our allied base operation. NATO operation, staging area for aircraft, helicopters, weapons, machinery. It’s just enormous and you can’t run Afghanistan if you cut the head off. And that’s what Biden did.
According to U.S. News & World Report, China has been considering sending military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram and has conducted a "feasibility study" on the effect of such a plan as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.Strike Source reported on Oct. 2 that sources in Afghanistan say that Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who the FBI wants for coordinating terrorist attacks against U.S. and Coalition Forces, has met several times with China’s intelligence chief, Chen Wenqing, in Kabul.
It can be possible that the news is true that the Chinese have come to Bagram. Last night, many planes landed and took off from there... pic.twitter.com/OVJLdyIqLu
— Natiq Malikzada (@natiqmalikzada) October 3, 2021
Free Press International
