China and Afghanistan

In: The China quarterly, Volume 25, p. 213-221

Abstract

When China and Afghanistan signed a Friendship and Mutual Non-Aggression Treaty in 1960, they called it "a new Silk Road," evoking nostalgic memories of a link between the two countries established 2,100 years ago. The old "Silk Road" stretching from China to Rome was opened by Chang Chien, a special envoy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 B.C.), who was seeking a military ally against the Hsiung-nu tribesmen in China's northwest. The Ta Yueh-chih people, then living in the Afghanistan area, originally lived in the Kansu area of China but migrated towards the Oxus River valley under pressure from the Hsiung-nu tribesmen. The Hsiung-nu, therefore, gave Chinese and early Afghans a common cause for alliance in the following century. As early as 104 B.C. an official envoy from the Afghan kingdom travelled the Silk Road to the Chinese Imperial Court.