Analysis: China's Footprint in Afghanistan
China has made in-roads into Afghanistan three years after the U.S. and its allies made a chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, bringing the Taliban back to power. To learn more about how Beijing has filled the void left by Washington, TaiwanPlus spoke to Jabin Jacob, an associate professor at Shiv Nadar University in India.
Transcript
00:00Has China filled the void after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan?
00:05China is one of the few countries, perhaps, that is actually actively willing to court
00:10or engage with the Taliban.
00:12So in that sense, the Chinese have certainly filled a void
00:15insofar as legitimacy for the Taliban is concerned.
00:19Have China's commercial activities since the withdrawal of the U.S.
00:23helped rebuild Afghanistan's economy?
00:26So far, the only major sort of economic project that has come to light
00:33is the sort of restarting of the Messina copper mine project.
00:39And that too is just the beginning of the construction of a road to the mines.
00:43Now, according to the Afghans themselves, the Taliban government itself,
00:47it will be at least a couple of years before copper is actually extracted from the mine.
00:52So this is still a long way to go.
00:54But clearly the Chinese are wanting to move forward in exploiting what,
01:00by many accounts, is a rather large mineral wealth that Afghanistan holds.
01:06So this is probably the first step.
01:09Will China accept Taliban into the Belt and Road Initiative
01:12because no decision on its membership has been announced yet?
01:15I think one of the issues, even now as well as then,
01:18is the sort of state of relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
01:21And because there are tensions in that relationship,
01:24I think there are many parts of this exercise.
01:27You know, the expansion of the BRI in Afghanistan
01:30or the connection of Afghanistan with Pakistan in the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
01:35A lot of those things are going slow or are stalled
01:38because of tensions in the Afghan-Pakistan relationship.
01:42And I think the Chinese are also trying to mediate in some form or the other
01:46between the two sides.
01:48But this is going to be very difficult for the Chinese to achieve.
01:51How does China's presence in Afghanistan help with its broader strategic goals
01:56in the wider Central Asian region?
01:58China's presence, China's influence in Afghanistan also matters
02:01insofar as China's relations with the Central Asian countries is concerned.
02:05Which also explains, you know, why China has such close ties with the Iranians.
02:10Because, again, Iran provides an outlet for Central Asian countries
02:13to see to the outside world.
02:15But given the nature of the Taliban regime, you know, its Islamist nature,
02:19the presence of terrorist organizations, fundamentalist organizations,
02:23some of which are sort of aligned against ruling regimes in Central Asia,
02:28this is not going to be easy for the Chinese.