Possible New Supply Route For NATO In Afghanistan...China?

The more I think about this, the more brilliant it appears to me. There is a report out here at SignOnSanDiego that says NATO officials are considering using China as a supply partner for their operations in Afghanistan - we know how desperate NATO forces are for a new reliable supply route due to huge problems with supplies coming through Pakistan and the Russians messing with deals to the North. But China? Here's some from the article:

NATO may ask China to provide support for the war effort in Afghanistan, including possibly opening a supply link for alliance forces, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The subject is still under consideration and no decision has been reached on whether to approach Beijing, the official said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.
He spoke ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday in Brussels, which will include Hillary Rodham Clinton in her first European trip as U.S. secretary of state.
One way Beijing could help would be to open an alternate logistics route through western China into Afghanistan, the U.S. official said in Brussels.
China shares a 76-kilometer- (50-mile)-long border with Afghanistan in the Wakhan Corridor, a thin sparsely populated strip of Afghan territory separating Pakistan and Tajikistan. The 2,000-year-old-caravan route – once used by Marco Polo – is now a dirt road that crosses some of the world's most mountainous regions.
Until now, China – which also has faced problems with Islamic militants in its western regions – has generally been supportive of the Afghan government and the U.S.-led allied war effort. But Beijing has shied away from involving itself too closely in the conflict.

Now, I certainly don't think the Chinese will buy into this but I think the brilliance of this idea goes beyond just trying to get supplies in. As the article states, China has its own big problem with islamic terror in its western provinces. This would give the Chinese a chance to send a strong signal to islamic forces outside of China that they are taking even more of a strong stance against the islamic unrest in their country. At the same time, can you imagine the coup of bringing China onboard, even if in a subtle way, in the fight against islamic terror on a world scale?

Certainly, I don't trust the Chinese as far as I can throw them but let's face it, if NATO and the U.S. doesn't solve this supply route issue in Afghanistan, that war is over. No supplies means no hope. It's my hope that the Chinese can be convinced because I think what it would mean would be a long term solution - the Chinese typically will abide by an agreement and I don't see anything disrupting that route....while some of the other countries mentioned as possible supply routes could nix that arrangement at any time.

NATO may ask China for support in Afghanistan

BRUSSELS — NATO may ask China to provide support for the war effort in Afghanistan, including possibly opening a supply link for alliance forces, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
The subject is still under consideration and no decision has been reached on whether to approach Beijing, the official said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.
He spoke ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday in Brussels, which will include Hillary Rodham Clinton in her first European trip as U.S. secretary of state.
One way Beijing could help would be to open an alternate logistics route through western China into Afghanistan, the U.S. official said in Brussels.
China shares a 76-kilometer- (50-mile)-long border with Afghanistan in the Wakhan Corridor, a thin sparsely populated strip of Afghan territory separating Pakistan and Tajikistan. The 2,000-year-old-caravan route – once used by Marco Polo – is now a dirt road that crosses some of the world's most mountainous regions.
Until now, China – which also has faced problems with Islamic militants in its western regions – has generally been supportive of the Afghan government and the U.S.-led allied war effort. But Beijing has shied away from involving itself too closely in the conflict.
The NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels comes amid intense diplomatic efforts to secure alternate supply routes to Afghanistan, to augment the main logistical lines through Pakistan, which have been under increasing attacks by Taliban guerrillas.
Russia and several other Central Asian states – which also are concerned about the progress of the war in Afghanistan – have allowed the United States, Germany and some other NATO nations to ferry non-lethal equipment by rail to the borders of Afghanistan, thus easing the supply squeeze faced by the alliance.
But NATO has continued to look for more routes to landlocked Afghanistan, especially after President Barack Obama announced that 17,000 more U.S. troops would be sent to reinforce the 56,000 allied soldiers already there. Some officials have even suggested that individual nations could explore opening up a new route through Iran to western Afghanistan.
The U.S. official said that NATO was looking to the allies to come up with four additional infantry battalions to be temporarily deployed to Afghanistan to help secure the presidential election campaign this spring or summer. A battalion normally includes 750 to 850 soldiers.
Attacks by insurgents have intensified, and the rebels now control wide swaths of countryside where there aren't enough NATO or Afghan forces to maintain security.