The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

in rebuilding the country has been limited despite Afghanistan
President Karzai’s call for their assistance.
China is the largest investor along with Kazakhstan,
which has also made some significant investment.
China’s largest venture is the U.S. $4 billion invested
to develop the Aynak copper mines south of Kabul.
Beijing’s single military contribution to Afghanistan
began only this year with the mine clearing training
provided the Afghan National Army at the PLA University
of Science and Technology in Nanjing. 47
Notwithstanding their interest in a stable Afghanistan,
both Russia and China view the U.S. presence in
Central Asia with distrust. 48 It is not only a U.S. military
presence that leads to Russian and Chinese suspicion.
American support for democratizing regional
political institutions is unwelcome by all SCO members.
These suspicions and concerns led to the SCO’s
call at its June 2005 Astana, Kazakhstan, summit for
a Washington timeline specifying when the United
States would withdraw from Central Asia. This demand
was followed almost immediately by Uzbekistan’s
ejection of U.S. forces from its Karshi-Kanabad
air base. 49
Base issues were to be a continuing U.S. problem.
In February, 2009, after receiving $2 billion in aid
from Russia, Kyrgyzstan informed the United States
it was ending American access to Manas air base—the
most important base facility the United States has in
Central Asia for sustaining Afghanistan operations.
The United States then paid $180 million to keep the
base open. Moscow responded by successfully pressuring
Bishkek for a second Russian base near Osh in
southern Kyrgyzstan. Demonstrating the lack of common
security views among the Central Asia states,
Uzbekistan raised objections to a new Russia base,
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