Taking high road to Kabul

Some US media have recently been in an uproar over China's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, accusing the country of concealing its ulterior motives in its violence-ravaged neighbor.

On Oct 14, the NBC used such demagogic words as "resource-hungry China heads to Afghanistan" as the headline of a story. Earlier on Oct 6, the New York Times carried an article, complaining that "while America is sacrificing its blood and treasure, the Chinese will reap the benefits". In the op-ed, titled "Beijing's Afghan Gamble", the author Robert Kaplan noted that "China will find a way to benefit no matter what the United States does in Afghanistan. But it probably benefits more if we stay and add troops to the fight."

These inflammatory comments aimed at defaming China's assistance to Afghanistan to boost its slowly progressing reconstruction are misleading US public opinion and adding a new precarious element to Sino-US relations. China's efforts to help a war-torn Afghanistan should not be distorted, but it seems it is time for the country to seriously weigh possibilities for cooperation with the United States in extricating Afghanistan from omnipresent violence and helping Afghans retrieve long-lost peace and rebuild destroyed homeland.