A subtle change is being detected in China, which has been advocating day after day for the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. It seems to have nothing to do with the recent Taliban movement, which seems to be returning to the past, the international opposition to the extreme Islamic law that ignores women’s rights, and the growing criticism of the Taliban in China.
China immediately admits to taking control of the Taliban… Profits expected from $1 trillion in minerals, etc.
On the 16th, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said as soon as the Taliban declared the retake of Afghanistan, “we respect the aspirations and choices of the Afghan people.” On the next day, the 17th, it effectively recognized the Taliban government, using the phrase “new Afghan regime”. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s briefing was almost the only channel to reveal the Chinese government’s position on various issues, and it was soon accepted as the official position of the Chinese government. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi himself also said, “The international community should not put pressure on Afghanistan, but should encourage and lead it to go in a positive direction.” The Afghan people must decide.”
China used the situation in Afghanistan as a means of highlighting the ‘American failure’. In contrast to the US, which has been imprisoned by the Taliban, such as a financial freeze, it has attempted to expand its influence not only in Afghanistan, but also in the Middle East and Central Asia. China also used the situation in Afghanistan as a warning against Taiwan’s independence theory. Just as the US withdrew from Vietnam and Afghanistan, it is argued that it will eventually turn its back on Taiwan. Among Chinese netizens, ‘Yesterday in Saigon, today in Kabul, tomorrow in Taipei’ was a ridicule mixed with words.
Economic reasons also played a big part in China’s siege of the Taliban. China has publicly expressed its intention to participate in Afghanistan reconstruction projects in the future. In particular, it is estimated that Afghanistan has deposits of rare earths, lithium, iron, copper, gold, and other minerals worth 1 trillion dollars (1,170 trillion won). According to 2012 data from the Afghan embassy in the US, the value of the mineral deposits amounted to 3 trillion dollars (3,510 trillion won).
China’s biggest concern about the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan was the Taliban’s collusion with the separatist Xinjiang Uyghur separatists. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which insists on the independence of Xinjiang Uyghurs, is a Sunni Muslim group like the Taliban. In addition, Xinjiang is located on the Chinese side of the border with Afghanistan. If ETIM carries out terrorism in China with the backing of the Taliban on its back, it could pose a significant threat to China.
The reason that Foreign Minister Wang Yi hastily met the second-in-command of the Taliban was interpreted as an attempt to dispel these concerns. On the 28th of last month, before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Wang Yi invited the Taliban’s second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to Tianjin, China for a meeting. Director Wang Yi demanded that “the Taliban draw a line with terrorist groups such as ETIM,” and at the time, he received a reply from the Taliban that “we will not allow any force to harm China.” As long as the threat of security and division has disappeared, there is no reason for China to refuse to support the Taliban.
Posts criticizing the Taliban one after another on Chinese social media… “The internal opposition in China is not strong”
On the 23rd, China’s state-run Global Times published an article titled “The Taliban’s priorities for governance are reconciliation, development, and recognition.” “The key is to what extent the Taliban will keep their promises to govern inclusively and respect women’s rights,” the article said. I did. It is clearly different from China’s position, which was shown in the early days of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The Global Times continued, “Chinese observers cannot deny that the Taliban has shown a different image than it was 20 years ago, but they see it as difficult to improve their religious ideology.” “It is unrealistic to expect the Taliban to immediately modernize and follow common customs,” he said.
Posts criticizing the Taliban are also appearing on Chinese social media Weibo. Among them, there is a video of an interview with a high-ranking Taliban leader a year ago, and when a reporter asked whether women were allowed to enter politics, the Taliban burst into laughter, saying, “I’m going to die of laughter.” The video has been viewed by 6 million Chinese, and comments criticizing the Taliban for ignoring women’s rights are pouring in. The article ‘Taliban soldiers burned the amusement park because some statues in Afghanistan were against Islamic law’ received more than 250 million views, and ‘The Taliban form a (inclusive) transitional government’ The hashtag ‘I have no plans to do it’ has also been viewed more than 300 million times. “The Chinese government welcomed the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan,” Bloomberg News reported.
The Taliban banned women from attending school and working in accordance with the extreme Islamic law called ‘sharia’, and forced women to wear a ‘burqa’ that covers the body in public places. Recently, there have been reports of the execution of the head of the Afghan Provincial Police Agency with a machine gun and the shooting of a woman for not using a burqa.
Given this situation, there is even a prospect that the Chinese government’s position on the Taliban may change. Il-hyeon Moon, a professor at China’s Political Science University, said, “There is no guarantee that the Taliban will subdue the militants in the region or achieve a phase of stability through negotiations. It can hold your ankles.” Professor Moon said, “In a situation where it is unclear what kind of relationship the US will establish with the Taliban, China may not feel the need to establish a relationship first.”
For this reason, in recent briefings by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and reports by Chinese state-run media, the words “dissolution of the relationship” and “responsibility of the United States” appear frequently. It is the US that invaded Afghanistan and withdrew from Afghanistan, so the US must first step in for stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan. There are parts that contradict the initial position. With the ever-changing situation in Afghanistan, it seems that it is a burden on China that the US assumes responsibility alone in the absence of power with which it has withdrawn.
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