As US Looks for Exit in Afghanistan, China Digs In

This April 2007 photo provided by James Yeager shows a delegation from the state-owned Chinese...

This April 2007 photo provided by James Yeager shows a delegation from the state-owned Chinese company, China Metallurgical Group Corporation, visiting the site of a copper mine in Aynak, a former al-Qaida stronghold southeast of Kabul, Afghanistan. The mounds behind the group, called "outcrops", signal the large quantity of copper that lies below. Yeager says a handful of Afghan officials dominated a secretive selection process that gave MCC improbably high marks over firms from the U.S., Canada and other countries, to develop a mine to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves. (AP Photo/James R. Yeager)

(AP)

At a former al-Qaida stronghold southeast of the Afghan capital, a state-owned Chinese company is at work on a $3 billion mine project to tap one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves, a potential financial boon for an impoverished country mired in war.

The promise of a bright future at Aynak, however, cannot conceal the troubling reality of how business is often done in Afghanistan, according to critics of the Kabul government's decision to reject bids from competitors in the U.S., Canada and other countries.

The bidding process unfairly favored China, they allege, and epitomized the back-room deals and abuse of power that has turned Afghans against their government and undercut the U.S. military effort there.

Corruption and graft long have been ingrained in Afghanistan's public institutions. Yet the extent of this corrosion has taken on new significance as the White House considers expanding the U.S. commitment to a war unsupported by a growing number of Americans.

Widespread fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election in August has raised doubts about how quickly a stable and credible government can be installed. A U.N.-backed commission threw out nearly one-third of President Hamid Karzai's votes, setting the stage for a Nov. 7 runoff.

In his recent assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander warned that unchecked corruption has led alienated Afghans to support the Taliban-led insurgency.

Afghan officials insist the Aynak bidding was handled openly and honestly, and will create thousands of jobs. But several U.S. geologists and Western businessmen who watched the process closely disagree.

James Yeager, an American geologist who advised Afghanistan's minister of mines, says a few Afghan officials dominated a secretive selection process that gave the winner, China Metallurgical Group Corp., improbably high marks over its foreign competitors.