Closer Look: U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan Means Beijing Needs a Plan

(Beijing) – With U.S. President Barack Obama's recent announcement that the United States will remove all military forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2016, American foreign policy is preparing to turn a bloody page.

This also may mark the beginning of another era: when China plays a prominent role in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.

Raffaelo Pantucci, a senior researcher of counter-terrorism and Chinese diplomacy at Britain's Royal United Services Institute, said that China has serious concerns that Afghanistan could become a source of instability.