KABUL: Afghan forces have exposed the Chinese intelligence network operating in Afghanistan for at least six months, under which the Chinese spies maintained contacts with Haqqani network and Afghan Taliban.
In mid-December, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials conducted a major operation in Kabul, which resulted in the detention of about 10 Chinese intelligence agents.
In an opinion piece in Pajhwok Afghan News, Habiba Ashna, an activist, said the Chinese talk a lot about peace in Afghanistan, while supporting the Pakistani military, who is waging a multi-year hybrid war against the Afghans, using the Taliban terrorists and other groups for this. "Now, Kabul has made it clear to Beijing that it will no longer tolerate Chinese spies cooperating with Pakistani agents and militants of the Haqqani network on its soil," she wrote.
According to Afghan security officials, the NDS is about eliminating "a complex and ramified network of agents," which operated for several months in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in order to promote "Beijing's geopolitical influence in the region."
Among the Chinese intelligence officers arrested by the NDS was Li Yanyang. According to Afghan intelligence officers, he began to actively work in the country in July, becoming an important element of the espionage network.
Li was detained on December 10 at his Kabul office. Afghan forces recovered weapons, ammunition and explosives from his possession. The NDS officers also arrested another Chinese agent Sha Hong. The forces recovered drugs and explosives during a search at his residence.
In addition to Li Yanyang and Sha Hoon, Afghan counterintelligence officers arrested seven more Chinese intelligence agents (one of them turned out to be a Thai citizen). Yanyang and Sha Hong were "key players" in a Chinese spy network in Afghanistan, according to the report.
According to leaks released to the Afghan media, the detained Chinese agents were in contact with some of the warlords of the Haqqani terrorist network. Moreover, agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence acted as intermediaries between the "Li network" and the "Haqqani network".
According to the report, Chinese spies regularly met, including with field commanders of various Taliban factions, recruited sources of information among the Taliban, and also, according to some sources, among al-Qaeda terrorists.
One of the main tasks of the group was to collect information about Uyghurs who fled from the territory of China to Afghanistan and neighbouring countries.