China offered bounties to non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers, report says
US troops in Afghanistan
China offered to pay non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers, a recent report by Axios has stated.
It's being said the Trump administration is declassifying this information as-yet uncorroborated intelligence.
The disclosure comes 21 days before the end of Trump's presidency -- and months after news reports indicated that the Russians had secretly offered bounties for Taliban militants to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
The unconfirmed intelligence was included in the president's briefing on December 17, and the message was conveyed to Trump by National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.
Administration officials across multiple agencies are currently working to corroborate the initial intelligence reports.
Andrew Small, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who specializes in China-Afghanistan affairs, told Axios that it seems "incongruous" that China would take such a provocative action in Afghanistan.
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Also, one senior official involved in the latest China discussions, who described the uncorroborated intelligence to Axios, said: "Like all first reports, we react with caution to initial reports" but "any intel reports relating to the safety of our forces we take very seriously."
The report further says the interest in Afghanistan stems in part from Beijing's desire to prevent Chinese Muslim separatist groups from using the country as a base.
Trump earlier this year admitted he had not addressed with Vladimir Putin the unconfirmed intelligence reports that Russia had been offering bribes to the Taliban to kill American soldiers. He had even received a lot of criticism for this.