The US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 paved the way for China to enter and deepen its influence in the country and the wider region.
While much of the international community has shunned the Taliban for their archaic policies, particularly towards women, China has little to say about the Taliban’s bleak human rights record. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has already made the trip to Afghanistan, and China has allowed the Taliban to reopen their embassy in Beijing, giving the Taliban government de facto legitimacy.
Security concerns along the 76-kilometer border with Afghanistan are a major factor in China’s engagement with Kabul. China considers several terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan a threat to its interests. Foremost in the minds of Chinese politicians is the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), an Al-Qaeda-allied terrorist network made up of ethnic Chinese Uyghurs. The TIP has conducted terrorist attacks inside China and is busy liberating the eastern province of Xinjiang in order to establish an Islamic emirate. Chinese President Xi Jinping cites the TIP threat as justification for the more than 1 million Muslim Uyghurs held in detention facilities in eastern China.
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, meets with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political leader of the Afghan Taliban, in Tianjin, north China, July 28, 2021.
(Photo by Li Ran/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The previous Taliban government from 1996 to 2001 allowed TIP to take refuge in Afghanistan which strained relations with China. Since the fall of Ashraf Ghani’s government, the TIP has been less visible and China has opened the door to the Taliban to ensure there is no repercussion of violence across the border. The Taliban assured China that Afghan territory would not be used for international terrorism, if only to allay Chinese fears and encourage desperately needed cooperation on the economic front. For China, Taliban assurances that they will keep certain groups in check is all that is needed to try a little harder.
“The Chinese play a very careful, very cautious and very transactional game when it comes to Afghanistan,” Bill Roggio, a senior member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
When the Taliban took power, they promised to impose law and order and ensured that Afghanistan would not be used as a reconnaissance ground for international terrorism. While the lawlessness that prevailed prior to the Taliban takeover has been somewhat reduced, Afghanistan remains a dangerous place and this will be an impediment to attracting more Chinese direct and foreign direct investment.
A Taliban security personnel stand guard at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak on December 12, 2022.
(AFP via Getty Images)
China has warned its citizens to leave Afghanistan soon after an ISIS-K terror attack in December at a hotel that housed major Chinese business interests. If the Taliban is unable to provide security, it could force Beijing to rethink its relationship with Afghanistan.
China will work with the Taliban when it serves their interests, especially in the economic field, but Beijing has no illusions about the Taliban’s credibility.
“China is very wary of the Taliban because they know they are very untrustworthy. While China will cooperate with the Taliban on economic issues, the TIP issue will force China to keep the Taliban at arm’s length,” Roggio added.
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Afghanistan’s economy collapsed after the Taliban took over Kabul and the country relied solely on international aid to stay afloat. Working with China also helps in the Taliban’s effort to gain international recognition. After the Taliban took Kabul, the new government embarked on a public relations campaign to ease the international community’s fears that the new Taliban were not the same as the old ones. After more than two years in power, the Taliban has reneged on promised reforms.
Afghans dig a trench for a mass grave for their relatives killed in an earthquake at a burial site in Gayan village, Paktika province, Afghanistan on Thursday, June 23, 2022. A powerful earthquake hit a rugged and mountainous region of ‘Eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, the flattening of stone and mud brick homes in the country’s deadliest earthquake in two decades, the state news agency reported.
(AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi)
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Chinese officials have made the right statements urging the Taliban to respect women’s rights.
“During the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, the rights of women and girls to education and employment should be effectively guaranteed. We hope that the Taliban authorities will make positive efforts to this end,” the Chinese ambassador recently told the United Nations, Zhang Jun. United Nations Security Council during a debate on peacebuilding in Afghanistan.
While China has not blessed the Taliban regime with official diplomatic recognition, the Taliban’s refusal to honor their initial promises hasn’t stopped Beijing from pragmatically engaging with the Taliban to further their economic interests.
“Unfortunately, China has been supporting and assisting the Taliban terrorist group for the past year and a half on the basis of its interests, without taking into consideration the Afghan people. Their dealings with the Taliban are completely illegal and will damage their credibility in the eyes of Il people of Afghanistan,” Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, told Fox News Digital.
Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to Afghanistan to broaden China’s growing economic interests.
(Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)
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Beijing is expanding its economic involvement in Afghanistan and recently signed an energy extraction deal to extract oil in northern Afghanistan. Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company has signed a $540 million deal to develop an oil and gas field, the largest economic deal concluded since the Taliban took over Kabul. A 2019 report by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum estimated that the country has at least $1 trillion in untapped natural resources.
The United Nations estimates that 97 percent of the Afghan population is at risk of poverty, and from the Taliban’s perspective, any foreign direct investment in the country will help strengthen their legitimacy and governance.
“We welcome Chinese investment in Afghanistan. Our people are facing poverty and unemployment. So investment from any country is vital to us and welcome,” Suhail Shaheen, head of the policy bureau, told Fox News Digital of Afghanistan in Doha.
Beijing is also keen to include Afghanistan in its Belt and Road Initiative. Launched by President Xi in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is an effort to improve regional cooperation and development with a wide range of infrastructure projects stretching from East Asia to Europe. Afghanistan, geographically located in Central Asia and at the center of ancient trade routes, is a lucrative prospect for Beijing.
Roggio warned that even with the enormous potential Afghanistan has, as the United States has learned in more than 20 years of being there since 9/11, China’s hopes for a stable and secure Afghanistan are easier said. what to do.
