by Amy Chew in SCMP, Jan 8, 2023
The Taliban has said it will guarantee the safety of Chinese nationals in Afghanistan, three weeks after an Islamic State affiliate attacked a Kabul hotel that caters to Chinese businessmen.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the Post on Wednesday that the regime had an “obligation” to maintain the safety of Chinese nationals.
“The current government reiterates its obligation to maintain the safety of Chinese nationals and all other nationals who are coming to Afghanistan either for investment, business or tourism,” Shaheen said via WhatsApp.
“This is the government’s responsibility and [we] are committed to delivering it,” he said, adding that most Chinese citizens in Afghanistan were there for business purposes.
On December 13, armed men opened fire at the Kabul Longan Hotel, seriously wounding five Chinese nationals.
Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K), the Isis affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group is an Isis offshoot that rose to prominence in late 2014 in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Its objective is to expand the Isis “caliphate” to South and Central Asia, according to Midstone Centre for International Affairs (MCIA), an independent policy research and advocacy institute.
In a December report, MCIA called Isis-K the “most serious operational challenge” to Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the “most significant” factor harming its bid for international recognition and legitimacy.
In 2021, Afghanistan ranked fourth among countries with the most Isis attacks, and a majority of these attacks targeted the Taliban, according to open-source intelligence consultancy Jihad Analytics.
Analysts said the Isis-K attack on Chinese nationals was part of an effort to undermine the Taliban regime.
“[Isis-K] has targeted the Taliban’s relationship with countries like China, Pakistan, Russia … very consistently in its propaganda. It has also openly threatened to attack the interests of these countries in Afghanistan whenever and wherever possible,” said Faran Jeffery, deputy director and head of the South Asia terrorism desk at the Britain-based think tank Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism.
The US in 2010 estimated that Afghanistan had US$1 trillion worth of unexploited minerals, while the Afghan government has said they are worth three times as much.
The unexplored mineral deposits include vast reserves of lithium, rare earths and copper – materials critical to the global green-energy transition.
According to Shaheen, Chinese investors have been eyeing the country for mining and infrastructure projects.
Chinese firms have gained rights to mine copper at Mes Aynak in Logar province, some 40km (25 miles) southeast of Kabul. The site is home to one of the world’s biggest copper deposits.
Afghanistan’s unexplored minerals are key to its prosperity and development but poor infrastructure, human resources and security problems have hampered efforts to mine and profit from the reserves.
Since the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has sought to establish good ties with China, calling Beijing a “welcome friend” for the country’s reconstruction.
While China has not formally endorsed the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, it was among the first to establish communications with the group.
In July 2021, a month before the US withdrew from Afghanistan, a high-level Taliban delegation travelled to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a meeting with then foreign minister Wang Yi.
In April 2022, Beijing signalled its support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying recognition of the group as the country’s legitimate government would come “when conditions are ripe”.
In exchange for its support, Beijing wants the Taliban to crack down on the militant East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which it has accused of promoting Uygur separatism in Xinjiang.
ETIM has hundreds of members active in the province of Badakhshan, which borders Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and it is also present in Faryab, Kabul and Nuristan provinces. The group set up training camps in Afghanistan after fleeing Chinese crackdowns in Xinjiang in the late 1990s.
The Taliban reiterated the importance of China’s ties with Afghanistan and welcomed Chinese investment and expertise in helping to develop the country.
“We are rebuilding Afghanistan from scratch, so we welcome investment, which is good for the investors and the Afghan people,” Shaheen said.
“China and Afghanistan are two neighbouring countries and [have] lived peacefully with each other for centuries,” he said.
“We welcome [Chinese] investments and are interested in benefiting from some of [China’s] experience in developments which are adaptable to Afghanistan.”
“We both, as important countries of the region, try to make our countries peaceful and prosperous,” he added.
Chinese nationals are believed to be the biggest group of foreign investors in Afghanistan.
More than 100 foreign companies registered in the country in 2022, compared with around 30 per year previously, Reuters reported, citing figures from Afghanistan’s commerce ministry.
Last month, Chinese entrepreneur Yu Minghui was quoted by Reuters as saying that 500 Chinese businessmen had entered Afghanistan to explore business opportunities since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, though few have committed to investment so far.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3205966/taliban-committed-safety-chinese-afghanistan-after-isis-attack-kabul-hotel?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage
