Afghanistan: China tries to tempt Taliban

Late last month China showed signs of making a working relationship with the Taliban and “hoped” they would dismantle the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Afghanistan and would not allow their soil to be used against China.

Calling the Islamic movement a “direct threat to China’s national security,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yi hoped the Taliban would take strong action against the people linked with the movement that represents over a million Uyghur Muslims incarcerated in camps in China’s Xinjiang region which the World and rights groups say is the hub of Chinese genocide.

Since an Afghan government existed back then, China could not take a bold step until the situation unfolded further.

Now, with the Taliban in control of the country, Chinese state-controlled media, Global Times reported the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying saying “China respects Afghan people’s right to decide their own destiny and future, and is willing to continue to develop friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan.” Indicating that China is more than willing to recognize the Taliban government if their demands are fulfilled.

Demands that would have the Taliban go after an ethnicity living in Afghanistan, fighting for its rights in Xinjiang.

China has always been skeptical of a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and historically has stayed away from the internal matters of other countries, but fears of the Taliban housing Uyghur separatists has changed the Chinese stance and they want to remain on the Taliban’s good side all while influencing them to accomplish Chinese objectives.

They have dubbed Xinjiang’s detention centers as vocational training facilities that somehow don’t torture and brainwash Uyghur Muslims but transition them towards a peaceful and non-separatist mindset.

With the Taliban having more control than ever, China will want to get as much work done as possible through a friendly relationship, and afterwards move towards a harsher business-to-business attitude it is infamously known for.

Be good and start housing global supply chains, then steal ideas and tech, and when you are sure you can fight back – expose your true self. This same strategy may be used against the Taliban, use allies to influence them in doing as much as it is possible through “friendship.”

Apart from the Xinjiang crisis, China is also worried about their Belt and Road initiative, they would want a Taliban stake in it, to feast upon the untouched raw materials in Afghanistan. If successful, Chinese investments will then be injected into the country, slowly influencing policies to suit their agenda and make the corrupt officials rich while the common people suffer, and then the Chinese “investors” like in Africa become the shadow government, having the power to topple governments by threatening to eject all investments.

Afghanistan will play a vital role in Pakistan as well, that houses China’s BRI, dubbed as CPEC. Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of housing terrorists that conduct attacks inside Pakistan and very recently on a bus carrying Chinese engineers.

Chinese propaganda related to Afghanistan spiked since July and now the state-controlled media is busy giving rise to the Afghan “hate” towards the US withdrawal and for leaving them stranded in their own country. Their state-controlled media has been busy sharing videos of protests outside the White House and went as low as comparing the US evacuation process to the film A Dog’s way Home, which the Global Times wrote an entire article on by picking a social media post from some Chinese social media website. The article has since been deleted but there’s something called cache which they must be unaware of in China with everything being state-controlled, even social media users.

It will be interesting to see when China recognizes the Taliban government, indicating their desperation and also paving way for investments that would woo the Taliban all while exposing the Chinese intent to create an economic footprint in the country that is rich with lithium and other natural resources. Afghanistan has been dubbed as the Lithium capital of the World, reserves that have barely been touched.

If the Taliban do move the economy from drugs to rare Earth metals then China would want the biggest slice out of the offering, heading to Kabul right-away intending to announce the Afghan belt of their Belt and Road initiative, in a bid to boost their tech production, lead the electric cars race and solidify defense needs.