Beijing denies planning military base in Afghanistan

China on Wednesday denied that it plans to build a military base in Afghanistan, after a Hong Kong newspaper said Beijing was constructing a training camp for Afghan troops to which it could also send its own soldiers. The South China Morning Post quoted unidentified sources with ties to the Chinese military as saying that Beijing was building the camp in the narrow Wakhan Corridor that links the two countries. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dismissed the report. “Since the construction and training, this situation, it doesn’t exist – it’s not true,” she told reporters. “So anything related naturally is not true,” Hua added. The spokeswoman also dismissed the assertion about China eventually sending its own soldiers, Reuters said. In January, the Defense Ministry denied a similar report that it planned to build a military base in Afghanistan.