Leaders from Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan assembled in Kabul last week to discuss economic cooperation through the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative and the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Some are worried that increased connections between China and the Taliban may lead Beijing to recognize the Taliban’s de facto government. Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban in July. While Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and China have sent ambassadors to Kabul, none have recognized the Taliban government.
Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari is the former Afghan government’s diplomatic envoy to Austria. Bakhtari told the Washington Examiner, “When major powers move to normalize relations with the Taliban … it legitimizes a regime that is systematically depriving half of its citizens of the most basic rights such as education, work, freedom of movement, and participation in public life.”
Bakhtari said normalization “not only strengthens the Taliban politically, but also deepens the sense of abandonment that Afghanistan women feel from the international community. It risks reinforcing gender apartheid by treating it as an acceptable domestic policy rather than a global human rights violation.”
China has economic reasons for pursuing a partnership with the Taliban — about $1 to $3 trillion in nickel, lithium, iron ore, cobalt, copper, gold, and chromite reserves are believed to exist inside Afghanistan. According to a statement issued by the Taliban after talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, “China intends to initiate practical mining activities this year.”
The statement likely refers to Chinese copper mining operations at Mes Aynak, the site of a historic Buddhist city southeast of Kabul. Long-standing concerns about how mining might destroy the ancient city have delayed construction after a Chinese company purchased a contract to mine at Mes Aynak in 2008. There have been numerous attempts to commence operations on the site, but the South China Morning Post noted in early August that miners are “poised to start construction” at Mes Aynak.
There are also signs of stagnation in the Afghanistan-China relationship after the Taliban canceled a large-scale Chinese oil contract at the Amu Darya basin in June after claiming investors breached their contract with the de facto government.
Talks in Islamabad are not purely economic. China is seeking to assert itself as a global power broker by reducing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, resulting from the latter allowing a haven to the terrorist group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. In recent years, the TTP has conducted numerous bloody attacks inside Pakistan.
Other terrorist threats pose a far greater concern to China. In December 2022, the Islamic State attacked a Chinese-owned hotel in Kabul, injuring five Chinese nationals. In January, a Chinese business owner contracted to mine in Afghanistan was killed in an Islamic State attack. Even more concerning for China is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a Uyghur separatist movement allied with the TTP and al Qaeda that utilizes violence in search of an “independent so-called ‘East Turkistan’ within China.”
A July 24 United Nations report on terrorism noted that “fighters from … ETIM/TIP were used by the de facto authorities in law enforcement and army units for providing domestic security, in particular in north Afghanistan.”
Citing between 100 and 750 TIP members in Afghanistan, the report added that ETIM has “reportedly accelerated ‘seeking independence by force’ through a new strategic plan and charter issued in March, renaming itself the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party and advocating ‘return to Xinjiang for Jihad.’”
TRUMP’S UTTERLY INCOHERENT UKRAINE STRATEGY
China Daily reported that in recent meetings with Yi, Muttaqi “reiterated that Afghanistan will never allow any individual or force to use Afghan territory to engage in activities harmful to China, and expressed willingness to strengthen security and counterterrorism cooperation with China to jointly safeguard lasting peace and stability in the region.”
Despite such promises and the continued expansion of terrorism in Afghanistan, regional players have continued to make bids for the Taliban’s business.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of the Afghanistan Project.