China is planning to expand its military presence in Pakistan near the border with Iran, according to a retired Army Reserve colonel.
In a piece for The Daily Caller, Lawrence Sellin claimed Chinese and Pakistani officials have held meetings in recent weeks about China building a Naval base on the Jiwani peninsula, located just east of the Gulf of Oman.
A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, Sellin wrote the plan would also include an expansion of the Jiwani Airport.
"A Chinese military base in Jiwani would control the vital sea lanes in the Arabian Sea at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and provide another link in a string of potential military facilities from the South China Sea to Africa, outflanking both India and the U.S. naval base in Diego Garcia," Sellin argued.
"In addition, it would spell checkmate for the U.S. counterinsurgency policy in Afghanistan, which is already hampered by Pakistani control of the operational tempo through its Taliban proxies and Pakistan's stranglehold on the supply of our troops into landlocked Afghanistan."
In October, it was reported
China is expanding Pakistan's Gwadar Port, which it owns and operates, to handle military vessels. It is also adding more infrastructure to the Gwadar International Airport so it can handle large military planes.
Gwadar is just over an hour's drive east of Jiwani. The latter is an hour by car to the nearest border crossing between Pakistan and Iran.
A Chinese military presence in either Jiwani, Gwadar, or both would allow it to keep tabs on America's military and intelligence actions in the Middle East. Further, Chinese military ships stationed there would be sitting in a highly trafficked area that sees American and Iranian warships and oil tankers pass through.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has indicated to President Donald Trump his country will take a firmer stance against North Korea's aggression. However, Chinese oil tankers have been caught in recent months
hooking up with North Korean ships in the middle of the ocean to transfer oil to them — a violation of U.N. sanctions.
Trump called out China for the act on his Twitter account last week:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/c...state-sponsor-of-terror/2018/01/01/id/834561/
