Afghanistan, Sisci: “Difficult middle ground for China, it is not a triumphal march”

“I do not see a triumphal march by China in Afghanistan, on the contrary I see a China very worried about having to be more involved in Afghanistan”. A China that will have to find a “balance, between neither too much nor too little” in what is the ‘tomb of empires’. “It might not be easy” for the Asian giant to deal with “one more big problem”. This is how Francesco Sisci, sinologist, professor of geopolitics at Luiss speaks. After Kabul’s surrender to the Taliban, “the Chinese will simply try to make sure that the Taliban does not become a problem for them” and “will have a minimalist policy, at least in intention,” he said in an interview with Aki – Adnkronos International, in which excludes an “embrace” between Beijing and the heirs of the movement founded by Mullah Omar, imagining rather a “relationship of temporary, mutual usefulness” in the name of pragmatism. Also because, he highlights, despite the withdrawal, “the Americans do not stop being in Afghanistan”, as well as a series of other actors involved, from Russians to Pakistanis, passing through Iranians and Indians, all “actors who will not easily align themselves. “. According to Sisci, Afghanistan is “one more big problem” for China, which is added to those “at the border”, from Myanmar, the scene of the February 1 coup, to the “militarized border” with the other Asian giant , India, and the situation in Hong Kong, the Taiwan question, a “rebel province” for Beijing. And again, “the heavily militarized South China Sea”, tensions with Japan for the disputed islands (Diaoyu / Senkaku) and North Korea which “is not a peaceful partner”. ‘Will keep relations with everyone, but it is a new space and dangerous’ At the end of July in Tianjian there was a meeting between the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and the mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Requests and promises. China “respects the choices and wills of the Afghan people”, they said this morning from the Beijing diplomacy. “The idea that there could be an embrace between China and the Taliban I see difficult – says Sisci – The Taliban are not a single entity”. Rather, there could be a “relationship of temporary, mutual benefit”, but – he warns – “we do not know what the terms may be and how long it may last”. And our thoughts always go to the Muslim minority in China, to Xinjiang, the “autonomous region” which borders on Afghanistan where the Uyghur minority lives. Thus, he concludes, a strong involvement of the Chinese could be “a disaster because it would be a question of managing Afghanistan and no one succeeded”, while a sidelong commitment would risk ‘opening’ for the Taliban, a “crazy meteor”, the prospect of “radiating into China”. “The Chinese – he concludes – will maintain relations with everyone, but it is a new and dangerous space”.