copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-23): Professional lecturer of international affairs at George Washington University [...] Foremost among the CCP’s security priorities in Afghanistan is preventing members of ideological extremist groups from crossing the small border the two countries share between Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor and Xinjiang. Namely, Beijing remains concerned that the Taliban will provide a safe haven to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which it has accused of fomenting violent separatism in Xinjiang and cited as justification for mass repression of the Uyghur population. In 2020, the U.S. government delisted ETIM as a terrorist organization over lack of evidence about the group’s continued existence and capacity. [...] "Anything that the Taliban touches should be treated like we treat North Korea."
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-02-16): In March last year, bne IntelliNews reported on concerns that Afghanistan-based terrorist groups could destabilise Tajikistan and Central Asia in the wake of the US exit from Afghanistan that took place the previous August. And as the US completed that exit, this publication explored how Afghanistan was set to attract jihadists from far and wide, with the development also a threat to China. China's Xinjiang Province has a 92-kilometre-long mountainous border with Afghanistan at the end of the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory in Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan that also separates Tajikistan from Pakistan. [...] After the US departure from Afghanistan, the Kremlin responded to the Taliban takeover of the country by beefing up the largest permanent military base it has abroad, namely its base in post-Soviet Tajikistan. It has made some efforts to negotiate understandings with the Taliban—a Taliban delegation to Moscow was last year allowed to form an official presence there, for instance—but it is not clear much progress in building relations has been made. Also since the US packed up and left Afghanistan, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has given several warnings that thousands of militants were located near his country’s border with Afghanistan, stating in January last year: "Overall, according to the intelligence of Tajikistan, there are over 40 camps and terrorist training centres in Afghanistan’s northeastern provinces, which house over 6,000 militants."
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-08-17): For all these reasons, Afghanistan has been a priority area for the United States, as evidenced by no less than 12,864 declassified CIA FOIA documents mentioning the territory. This article attempts to synthesize the CIA’s reasoning from the declassified documents from 1979 to the most recent ones, in order to understand this region of the world at a time when American troops are withdrawing and China is strengthening its military presence in the Wakhan corridor and beginning negotiations with the Taliban. [...] The CIA mentions the importance of Afghanistan since the beginning of the People’s Republic of China xiv. Since China and Afghanistan share a border in the Wakhan Corridor, every internal disturbance has repercussions on national affairs, including Islamic terrorism in the Xinjiang. As such, the relationship is a two-way street—if the threat of religious extremism spills over into China, Beijing is also able to destabilize foreign forces in Afghanistan. [...] The election of Joe Biden marked a change in the American military posture with the announcement of the withdrawal of troops with a final date of September 11, 2021. At the time of writing, Afghanistan seems to be returning to religious tensions and the comeback of the Taliban leaderships in national politics, which suggests that the situation going forward will be similar to that before the 2001 U.S. intervention. Beijing will then be in a position to decide whether to interfere militarily or to continue to control only the Wakhan Corridor from its base in Tajikistan.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-05-16): During a meeting in late July with Taliban cofounder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that the movement would make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, including ETIM. The response from the Taliban was its routine pledge not to allow any organization to threaten Afghanistan’s neighbors from its territory. But many doubt the sincerity of such statements. [...] If Taliban rule breaks down, the northern part of the country will fall into Tajik hands. [...] The Chinese’s main concern is the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of Afghan territory wedged between Pakistan and Tajikistan that terminates at the border between China and Afghanistan. Although the Chinese-Afghan border is only about 76 kilometers, Beijing worries that jihadists could use the much longer border between Wakhan and Tajikistan to slip into the latter. Previously, China conducted joint patrols with Tajik and Afghan forces to prevent that from happening. With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, that is no longer possible.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-10-30): ISK emerged in 2015, when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria announced its expansion to the historic "Khorasan" region, which encompassed parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia. Initial members of the group predominantly included former hardline members of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida, and other militant groups. Since its inception, ISK has seen the Taliban as its strategic rival and ideological opponent. It has targeted Taliban positions and attempted to encourage defections from the movement. From 2015 to 2020, amid sustained military pressure by the U.S., Afghan government forces and the Taliban contained the ISK threat. [...] Before the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in August, TIP had approximately 400 Uyghur fighters, gathered primarily in the Jurm district of the country’s northeastern Badakhshan province, which shares a small border with Xinjiang via the mountainous Wakhan Corridor. Despite being an independent jihadist faction, TIP has performed all its activities in Afghanistan under the guidance and approval of the Taliban. Since 2019, the group has kept a relatively low profile in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s capture of Kabul was an iconic moment for TIP and many other jihadist groups across the world. A few days after the fall of the Afghan government, TIP issued a statement lauding the Taliban’s "victory" and the "restoration of the Islamic Emirate." A potential resurgence of TIP, which China blames for many attacks at home, has been Beijing’s overriding security concern.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): Afghanistan is completely landlocked—the nearest coast lies along the Arabian Sea, about 300 miles (480 km) to the south—and, because of both its isolation and its volatile political history, it remains one of the most poorly surveyed areas of the world. It is bounded to the east and south by Pakistan (including those areas of Kashmir administered by Pakistan but claimed by India), to the west by Iran, and to the north by the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. It also has a short border with Xinjiang, China, at the end of the long, narrow Vākhān (Wakhan Corridor), in the extreme northeast. Its overall area is roughly twice that of Norway.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-09-01): The Pamir Kyrgyz are the descendants of Kyrgyz who arrived in Afghanistan between 1575 and 1930 as a consequence of various threats and expulsions. Today, they live in the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory between Tajikistan, Pakistan and China, where mountain ravines are interspersed by remote valleys. Due to its geographical isolation, this ethnic group was largely untouched by sovietisation and was therefore able, for the most part, to preserve its traditional nomadic lifestyle and its language, ethnic identity and Islamic faith. Today, in the rugged terrain of the Pamirs, the Wakhan Kyrgyz tend their livestock and weather the harsh conditions. Until 1973, they numbered around 10,000 and counted as one of the official nations of the Republic of Afghanistan; they were also assigned the task of patrolling the region’s borders as part of the official border service (most have no official nationality or are stateless). Since then, their numbers have drastically declined due to the extreme social instability caused by ongoing conflicts and violence at the hands of the first Taliban regime. A further factor was the mass exodus of several large Afghan Kyrgyz clans to Pakistan, Canada and Turkey, where they were accepted as refugees.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-10-16): Near SHAYMAK, Tajikistan -- In a remote stretch of land near the Wakhan Corridor not far from Tajikistan’s mountainous border with northeastern Afghanistan, China's regional ambitions are adjusting to a new reality on the ground. [...] China also funded and trained an Afghan brigade that operated in the Wakhan Corridor, according to a 2018 report by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, a report that Beijing denied, saying it had not built a training camp and there will be "no Chinese military personnel on Afghan soil." [...] The attack was claimed by Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), the Afghan affiliate of the terrorist group that remains violently opposed to Taliban rule.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-02-03): Accordingly, China has increased its involvement in this specific border region. On August 4, 2016, the inauguration of the so-called Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism stipulated a closer military co-operation between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China and Pakistan; in September 2016 China signed an agreement with Tajikistan, pledging the construction of eleven outposts of different sizes and a training center for (Tajik) border guards along the Afghan-Tajik border; and during five days in late October 2016 China and Tajikistan reportedly held counterterrorism exercises in the Tajik part of the Wakhan Corridor – a narrow stretch of Afghan territory, wedged in between Tajikistan and Pakistan with the short border with China at its very end. [...] The eyewitness report furthermore indicated that the Afghan Border Police stationed in the Little Pamir cooperated with Chinese troops, meaning that they apparently did not perceive the Chinese presence on Afghan territory as illegal. [...] Image source: Wikimedia Commons, accessed on February 3, 2017
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-02-18): The modest facility in Tajikistan — which offers a springboard into Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor a few miles away — has not been publicly acknowledged by any government. [...] Details about China’s activities at the facilities, some of which bear the Chinese and Tajik emblems, are not made public. Also unclear are the arrangements over their funding, construction and ownership. Satellite imagery shows what appear to be two clusters of buildings, barracks and training grounds, about 10 miles apart near the mouth of the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory in northeastern Afghanistan. [...] In late 2017, the Development Research Center, an influential think tank under China’s cabinet, invited a handful of Russian researchers to its central Beijing offices. In what was billed as a private seminar, the Chinese explained why China had a security presence in Tajikistan that extended into the Afghans’ Wakhan Corridor, according to Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a Russian participant.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-29): The Wakhan Corridor (Dari: دالان واخان, romanized: Dâlân-e wâxân; Pashto: واخان دهلېز, romanized: Vâxân dahléz) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan in the north from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan in the south, the latter of which is also part of the disputed region of Kashmir.[1][2][3][4][5][a] This high mountain valley, which rises to a maximum altitude of 4,923 m (16,152 ft), serves as the source of both the Panj and Pamir rivers, which converge to form the larger Amu Darya River. For countless centuries, a vital trade route has traversed this valley, facilitating the movement of travelers to and from East, South, and Central Asia.[6] [...] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan asked the People's Republic of China on several occasions to open the border in the Wakhan Corridor for economic reasons or as an alternative supply route for fighting the Taliban insurgency. The Chinese resisted, largely due to unrest in its far western province of Xinjiang, which borders the corridor.[26][27] In December 2009[update], it was reported that the United States had asked China to open the corridor.[28] [...] - ^ "Wakhan: The Corridor of Complication between Taliban, Pakistan and China". India Today. 1 August 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-07-04): The Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan, is situated at the crossroads of four countries: China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Wakhan Corridor is about 350 km long with 16 to 64 km wide at its eastern end, the corridor forks into two prongs that wrap around a salient of Chinese territory, forming the 92 km boundary between the two countries. [...] It shares a 300 km with Pakistan, on its northeast and west direction it has over 260 km boarder with Tajikistan, and 74 km with China. The Wakhan Corridor appeared as a bridge among the nations with great mountains ranges on the Silk Route. The corridor has great historic value being part of ancient Silk Road. Even today it has great potential for regional connectivity and tourism. The Wakhan territory is considered very peaceful having no law-and-order problem. [...] The Wakhan Corridor has a great Geo-strategic and geo-economic significance for Afghanistan, China and Pakistan. However, the opening of this corridor will have serious implications for regional and global players involved in Afghanistan, especially India and the US. Further With growing Chinese concerns over radicalisation among Uyghurs in its western region and taking over of Taliban in its neighbourhood, the visual evidence of Pakistan recent made border markings being taken down by the Taliban raises questions about the future of the narrow corridor.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-11-06): Sandwiched between the mountains of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram, the Wakhan Corridor linking Afghanistan and China played a vital role in the 19th-century battle for control in Central Asia. Today, devoid of electricity and all extravagance, the Wakhan is a window into history centuries ago. [...] The Wakhan Corridor may look more or less as it has done for centuries, but change is on the way. There is talk of a road to China and a reopening of the Broghil Pass to Pakistan. If you look closely, you’ll already spy occasional solar panels and mobile phones (albeit without network coverage). The children, once educated, will ask for something more than eking out a life at the end of the world. If you want to see the Wakhan as a wilderness, now is the time to go. The world can change in a heartbeat, and once the Wakhan’s potential is exploited, the traditional Wakhi way of life will quickly disappear.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-08-01): Wakhan: The Corridor of Complication between Taliban, Pakistan and China [...] Wakhan is a remote district in the hilly Badakhshan province, which is 217 miles long and less than 9 miles wide and in between northeastern Afghanistan and Central Asia and ends with the narrow border between Afghanistan and China, which is only 47 miles long. The Hindukush Mountain range to the west and the Karakorum mountains to the south encircle Wakhan. The district borders Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the south, and China to the northeast. The high-altitude region that connects Central and South Asia is largely covered in snow. [...] Experts also believe that Pakistan is trying to utilize its strategic proximity to Afghanistan and the Wakhan Corridor to posture its intentions in controlling the advancement of the Taliban toward the Western borders of China, bordering on the Tashkorgan (Tashkurgan) Autonomous County in the Kashgar Prefecture of Western Xinjiang region.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-11-29): The people of the Wakhan Corridor live in some of the highest mountains in the world that form steep slopes cut by the Panj River. Local inhabitants speak a number of dialects of the Wakhi language, which is separate and distinct from 11 other Eastern Pamiri languages. Linking Central Asia to China’s Xin Xiang Province, the region has a rich cultural history, marked by the religious fingerprints of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. [...] Throughout the period of the Great Game (and before) China also fought for territory in the Wakhan Corridor, and recently won back a small stretch of land in the far northeastern corner of Tajikistan that had been under dispute since the mid-1800s (between Tsarist Russia and China). This section, rumoured to be rich in mineral wealth, was ceded to the Chinese by the Tajik government in 2011 as payment for debts the Tajik government owed to China for construction of several roads and bridges. The Tajiks living in the villages in these areas were forced to relocate to even more austere locations, lacking in water or arable land for farming or livestock.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-09-21): Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip between Pakistan and Tajikistan, which Pakistan it distinguishes it from other Central Asian countries. Wakhan district is in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, bordering four countries China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Wakhan Corridor has been a transport highway for thousands of years. Historians say it was the ancient Silk Road, which ran from India to China. Marco Polo also travelled through the same route, while Buddhism also spread through this route. [...] China and Afghanistan are well aware of the importance of the Wakhan Corridor. Both, especially China, wanted easy access to Afghanistan through a safe route.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-06-23): Geography [edit]The Wakhan is located in the extreme north-east of Afghanistan. It contains the headwaters of the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, and was an ancient corridor for travellers from the Tarim Basin to Badakshan. The geographic position of Wakhan between China, India, and Bactria allowed it to play a major role in trade in the ancient world.[1] [...] Wakhan Corridor [edit]The Wakhan is connected to Tashkurgan Tajik County, China, by a long, narrow strip called the Wakhan Corridor, which separates the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.[a] [...] - Caravanistan.com Wakhan corridor
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-08-14): The Wakhan Corridor is a fiercely contested imperial hangover. [...] The Wakhan Corridor is a panhandle 217 miles long but less than 9 miles wide, ending in Afghanistan’s short border with China that measures just 47 miles across. It was created by Russo-British negotiations in 1895, resulting in a commission that designated the valley as a buffer zone between the two empire’s territories—nominally administered by the emir in Kabul. [...] China uses supposed Islamist extremism to justify the Xinjiang crackdown—but has little problem dealing with the Taliban. Such deals surprise fewer Afghans, let alone Wakhis. Beijing has been actively conducting security and diplomatic operations in and around the Wakhan Corridor for well over a decade. Those who know the territory insist that Chinese security personnel have been seen frequently there since the late 2000s, sometimes with Afghan troops in tow. Then, around 2012, Beijing began to provide scholarships for study in China to the sons of influential local families. Later still, the Wakhjir Valley at the end of the Corridor became increasingly securitized, mostly to prevent Uyghurs from fleeing Xinjiang.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-09): Looking at Afghanistan’s map, one observes a narrow strip of land protruding northeastward out of its northern part. Called the Wakhan Corridor, it is a colonial construct to keep the borders of the Indian subcontinent, then under the British empire, and the Russian Empire from intersecting. Today, the 350-kilometer long and 16-to-64-km wide Wakhan Corridor separates Pakistan and Tajikistan and ends at a short 92 km border with China’s expansive Xinjiang province. [...] Besides its strategic significance, the Wakhan Corridor is now widely seen in Afghanistan as a possible direct trade conduit with China. Currently, there is no trade link on their small shared border; Afghanistan’s trade with China is instead routed through third countries, like Pakistan. [...] It is unclear whether the Chinese government continued to fund the project or which stretch of the long road was built. However, in September 2023, the Taliban government’s ambassador to China held discussions with Chinese authorities regarding the commencement of traffic through the Wakhan Corridor. The Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also raised the opening of a trade corridor through Wakhan with China in his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the third Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation in October 2023.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-08-27): What is the Wakhan Corridor and why is China worried about it? [...] The Wakhan region is known for being inaccessible for most of the year due to its high altitude, extreme weather and lack of roads. It is located in the remote Afghan province of Badakhshan, where three of the world’s major mountain ranges – the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram and the Pamirs – meet to form what is known as the Pamir Knot. The only access point at the border is at the southeastern end of the corridor, known as the Wakhjir Pass, which sits at nearly 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) above sea level. There is no road on the Afghan side of the pass.
Claim: Wakhan Corridor is a territory of Republic of China (Wakhan Corridor, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-02-25): Once an isolated region barely touched by the hands of time, Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor stands on the brink of great change with the building of a new road linking it with China.