The Taliban terrorist organization’s top spokesman accused President Donald Trump of spreading “misinformation” on Sunday in response to his claim that the Chinese government was occupying the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, a former American site.
Trump made the comments in front of reporters prior to an all-cabinet meeting on Wednesday, accusing predecessor Joe Biden of abandoning a critical military position with his extension of the 20-year-old Afghan War in 2021, which resulted in his orders to abruptly abandon the country entirely.
The U.S. military left hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment and facilities when it abandoned Afghanistan in 2021 and cumulatively spent $89 billion on the defunct Afghan military, according to the government watchdog Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Much of that money was invested into Bagram Air Base, which the U.S. military abruptly vacated, leaving it in the hands of the Taliban. Taliban terrorists have used the site for propaganda parades on the several occasions, inviting the Chinese government to participate in one such event last year.
“We were going to get out [of Afghanistan, but we were going to keep Bagram,” Trump told reporters on February 26, “not because of Afghanistan but because of China, because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.”
President Joe Biden remained on vacation at Camp David in Maryland as U.S. diplomats scrambled Sunday to escape Kabul, Afghanistan. https://t.co/8ShhZQM3IW
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 15, 2021
“We were going to have Bagram Air Base, one of the biggest air bases in the world. … We gave it up,” he continued. “And you know who’s occupying it right now? China. China. Biden gave it up.”
Trump went on to lament that Washington sends Afghanistan, now under the rule of Taliban jihadists, “billions of dollars in aid … if we’re doing that, I think they should give our equipment back.”
The Taliban, a jihadist terror organization that has focused especially on systematically eradicating the rights of women since returning to power in August 2021, bristled at the comments, accusing Trump of spreading “misinformation” and denying the presence of the Chinese government at the base.
“There is not a single armed Chinese individual here, nor do we have any such agreement with any country,” Mujahid said in comments to the Taliban-controlled RTA television network. “Why is he spreading such misinformation at such a high level? His information needs to be complete. The United States is a major country, and its leader should speak with great accuracy.”
Voice of America translated Mujahid as advising Trump to “refrain from making emotional statements based on unsubstantiated information.” The outlet noted that Mujahid also rejected the idea of returning the weaponry and other equipment America left in the country upon its departure and asserted the Taliban would use them if it felt necessary.
“Mujahid stated that if the United States insists on reclaiming military equipment, Kabul will rightfully expect substantial war reparations for the consequences,” Voice of America added.
Mujahid also reportedly referred to the weapons as “spoils of war.”
File/A general view of vehicles that were left after the U.S. forces left Bagram airfield in the north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 5, 2021. The forces left Bagram airbase after nearly 20 years. Now Afghan National Army formation set up. (Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Despite being a radical Islamic terrorist group, the Taliban maintains close ties with the atheist communist government of China and has repeatedly invited it to invest in Afghanistan. The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency regularly publishes articles boasting of the growing Chinese presence in the country, particularly business investments, funds offered to build hospitals and other public facilities, and general aid. In July, the Taliban announced, for example, that China would invest 100 million yuan ($13.7 million) to “address the issues faced by returnees from neighboring countries.”
China is not merely a source of revenue for the Taliban, however. The Taliban’s armed wing keeps an open line of communication to Beijing. In November, the Taliban’s “defense minister,” Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, welcomed China’s special envoy for Afghanistan in Kabul to discuss “mutual interests.”
“In his remarks, Mawlawi Mujahid emphasized China’s role as a good neighbor and a vital partner for Afghanistan,” Bakhtar reported at the time. “He assured the delegation of the ministry’s commitment to advancing cooperation in the discussed areas.”
The Taliban maintained a stranglehold on political power in Afghanistan for much of the 1990s and lost its position after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. homeland. For 20 years, the jihadists maintained an uprising against the U.S.-backed government of the country, nominally a republic respecting basic civil liberties. President Trump had negotiated an agreement during his first term in office with the Taliban to end the American presence in the country in exchange for the Taliban cutting ties to Al Qaeda, the group responsible for the September 11 attacks. The deal would end America’s presence in the country on May 1, 2021.
President Biden announced shortly before the deadline that he would violate the deal and extend the war, prompting the Taliban to launch thousands of attacks debilitating the weak Afghan military rapidly. By August 15, 2021, the Taliban arrived in Kabul, prompting then-President Ashraf Ghani to flee.
File/An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier takes a selfie with his mobile phone inside the Bagram US air base after all U.S. and NATO troops left, some 70 Kms north of Kabul on July 5, 2021. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Contrary to the Taliban’s implications that Trump had fabricated reports of China being present at the Bagram Air Base, reports that Beijing was interested in taking it over surfaced almost as soon as Kabul fell. In September 2021, U.S. News reported, citing anonymous sources, that “the Chinese military is currently conducting a feasibility study about the effect of sending workers, soldiers and other staff … to Bagram.” Some “other staff” mentioned included workers for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China debt-trap scheme offering predatory loans to poor countries.
Similarly, that same month, the Indian outlet CNN-News 18 reported that a Chinese delegation had, indeed, visited Bagram to “conduct reconnaissance.”
“Sources told CNN-News18 that it was not clear why the top Chinese intelligence and military delegation visited the airfield in north Kabul, but they were reportedly collecting ‘evidence and data against Americans,'” the outlet noted at the time.
The Daily Mail reported in October 2021 that Chinese military aircraft had landed in Bagram at the time, though no reports of regular Chinese traffic to the site have surfaced since then.
