Afghanistan, the Taliban and China: a not impossible embrace

On the one hand, China, with its government accused of having carried out one of the most serious violations of human rights of these times, the oppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a Turkic ethnic group of Islamic faith. On the other hand, the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalists. A past and a future in an uncertain present for an Afghanistan that seems increasingly in chaos. According to CNN, the Chinese Communist Party and the Taliban, hosted by China in 2019 for peace talks, could soon find themselves working together, at least for some time in that Afghanistan, which shares a very short stretch of border with China, where after 20 years, the withdrawal of coalition forces in the midst of a Taliban advance is about to end. At the South China Morning Post, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesperson for the group, confirmed that China is a “welcome friend” for the movement founded by Mullah Omar and that reconstruction talks should begin “as soon as possible” with the historic Asian giant. ‘friend’ of neighboring Pakistan, with influence over the Taliban. Words came just hours after a spokesperson to the Wall Street Journal made it clear that the group “will not interfere in China’s internal affairs” even though “concerned about the oppression of Muslims” in Xinjiang. The possibility of China’s “collaboration” with the Taliban is possible precisely because there is the question of Pakistan “, Sinologist Francesco Sisci, professor of geopolitics at Luiss, told Adnkronos, without forgetting that in the past the movement has” proved unreliable “even though” both have a common opponent “, India. “China has historically had good relations with Pakistan”, where just today nine Chinese citizens died in an attack. “Strengthened by this good relationship – he continues – the Taliban could also have good relations with China”. But the issue is “delicate” for Beijing because in past years, he notes, “the Taliban have been the main conduct for the indoctrination, radicalization of Uighurs in Xinjiang” and because “there is a widespread Islamic minority in China itself that it has been ‘contaminated’ by the radicalization of Islamic extremism “outside China’s borders. And therefore, he remarks, a possible “arrival in power of the Taliban in Kabul risks being very delicate” for Beijing if the movement “does not abandon Islamic extremism”. Just yesterday, from Dushanbe, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, he urged the Taliban to realize “responsibility”, to “break with all terrorist forces” and “return to traditional politics”, hoping for an “inclusive political agreement” for the future of Afghanistan. The Asian giant, which has never been involved militarily in the Afghan quagmire, has always been attracted to it by its ‘riches’, its natural resources, and has promised to play an important role in the reconstruction, furthering the goal of eliminating the international terrorism and stability for a land tormented by decades of wars In May, Chinese diplomacy confirmed talks between Beijing, Kabul and Islamabad to extend the ‘economic corridor’ between China and Pakistan to Afghanistan (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC) . But the worry remains Xinjiang (theater of Uighur repression) and Beijing does not want any Afghanistan in total chaos to be exploited by Uyghur militants. The same South China Morning Post wrote in April of the possibility that Beijing would consider sending a “peacekeeping force” should it deem the situation in Afghanistan a threat to Xinjiang. “China – says Sisci – does not want to send troops to Afghanistan because it is well aware that anyone who goes to Afghanistan breaks their bones, but simply relying on the Taliban can be delicate: in the past they have shown themselves to be unreliable for anyone”. Today, Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain, president of the Pakistan-China Institute, argued at CNN, the ‘heirs of Mullah Omar’ are more “pragmatic” than in the past. They go to great lengths, the Wall Street Journal wrote, to reassure the Asian giant, who would once have been worried about their advance with their thoughts on Xinjiang. And for the Global Times, the foreign voice of the Beijing government, those questions to the Taliban about that region have the sole objective of “sowing discord between Beijing and the Taliban.” Since early May, when the withdrawal of coalition forces began , the Taliban were the protagonists of an advance that saw them prevail in one district after another of the devastated Afghan land. The insurgents claim to have control of 85% of the territory, the government of Kabul denies and estimates cited in recent days by the BBC claim that they hold more than a third of the approximately 400 districts of the country, including an arc of land that goes from Iranian border in the west to the border with China on the other side of Afghanistan. The Guardian wrote yesterday about an Afghanistan stunned by the extent and speed of the collapse of the security forces. For George Bush, president in 2001 when the Americans landed in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, withdrawal is a “mistake”, which will pay for “Afghan women and girls”.