Muslim children forced to drop 'religious' names in western China

Salaam

Another update.

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Mesut Ozil challenges Arsenal to say ‘Muslim Lives Matter’

Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has criticised the London club’s response to his comments about the persecution of Uyghur Muslims and has called on the Gunners to say “Muslim Lives Matter.”

In an interview with The Athletic, Ozil said Arsenal were happy to get involved in political matters by supporting the Black Lives Matters movement.

He said: “I have given a lot to Arsenal, on and off the pitch, so the reaction was disappointing. They said they don’t get involved in politics but this isn’t politics and they have got involved in other issues.”

Ozil also wants Arsenal to show support for “Muslim Lives Matter” as well as “Black Lives Matter.”

He said: “In America, we saw George Floyd killed and the world spoke up to say Black Lives Matter, and that is correct. We are all equal and it’s a good thing that people fight against injustice. There are a lot of black players and fans of Arsenal and it’s fantastic the club is backing them.

“But I wish people would have done the same for the Muslims because Arsenal have many Muslim players and fans as well, and it is important for the world to say that Muslim Lives Matter.”

In December 2019, Ozil spoke out strongly against China’s treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, where over a million people have reportedly been held in detention camps over recent years.

Ozil’s Instagram message read: “East Turkistan, the bleeding wound of the Ummah, resisting against the persecutors trying to separate them from their religion.

“They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men. The women are forced to marry Chinese men.

“But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them. Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”

But Arsenal moved to distance themselves from his comments and sought to limit any damage to their business in China, a move Ozil today told The Athletic he was not happy with.

A statement released by the club at the time on Chinese social media site Weibo said: “Regarding the comments made by Mesut Ozil on social media, Arsenal must make a clear statement.

“The content published is Ozil’s personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.”

https://5pillarsuk.com/2020/08/13/me...-lives-matter/

It’s a Muslim Holocaust on a much bigger scale and unfortunately Muslim leaders are cowards and have not said anything publicly.

Salaam

Not surprising but still shocking.

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Salaam

Another update.

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'Sold out': Uighurs fear deportation as China ratifies extradition treaty with Turkey

Uighur activists urge Turkish government not to abide by agreement that could put tens of thousands at risk of being detained in internment camps

Beijing has ratified an extradition treaty with Turkey that Uighurs fear could pave the way for tens of thousands to be deported and imprisoned in internment camps that rights group say constitute a “cultural genocide”.

The treaty, first signed during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Beijing in 2017, was ratified last weekend at the Chinese National People’s Congress, with state media saying it would be used for counter-terrorism purposes.

Turkey is yet to ratify the treaty, and as such no extraditions are expected any time soon. However Uighurs are now calling on the Turkish government and lawmakers to stop the agreement from going through.

Uighurs, a Muslim-majority Turkic minority, have sought refuge in Turkey since 1952, when the Turkish government offered asylum to those fleeing the Xinjiang region (also known as East Turkestan) as a fledgling communist China cemented its hold.

Today, however, Turkey’s estimated 50,000 Uighur refugees now find themselves living on the edge, as China escalates the persecution of their kin back home and targets the community abroad.

Warming relations and allegations of collusion between Ankara and Beijing have only compounded fears that Uighurs could be deported to join the estimated one million detained in camps.

Earlier this week, an investigation by BuzzFeed News revealed a vast sprawl of factory facilities built across the western region of Xinjiang, underscoring allegations of forced labour and mass incarceration.

China denies the allegations, and says it seeks to lift Xinjiang's people out of poverty and increase seucrity through its policies.

'Big mistake'

Abduweli Ayup, a Uighur activist in Turkey, told Middle East Eye the treaty was “not surprising” because of alleged Turkish cooperation in deporting Uighur dissidents to China, sometimes via a third country.

Among them is a 59-year-old mother of two, whom activists fear was deported from Turkey to Tajikistan in June, before being taken to neighbouring Xinjiang. Ankara denies the claims.

Ayup suggests that should Ankara ratify the treaty, extraditions will be carried out in secret and not en masse. “I don’t believe that the Turkish government will send Uighurs to China openly, not like what happened in Egypt,” he said, referring to the mass arrests of Uighur students in Cairo in 2017, thought to be at the behest of Beijing.

However, he says that the public nature of the extradition accord could turn the spotlight on China’s hitherto covert campaign to force Uighurs to return home for political and religious screening.

“The extraditions were taking place underground before, and the Chinese government didn’t mention them openly. Now they’ve put it on the table, it can draw international attention,” said Ayup, who added that Turkish campaigners are now taking up the issue.

“China has made a big mistake,” he said.

Provisions in the treaty that have raised the alarm include a clause that “it shall not matter whether the laws of both parties place the offence within the same category or describe the offence by the same terminology”.

Rights groups say this could allow the parties to request the extradition of its citizens charged for offences that are interpreted differently in the other party's jurisdiction.

This fear is echoed by Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uighur Congress, who is one of those China has charged with "terrorism", a tactic critics say is used to tarnish and criminalise Beijing's opponents.

“Because the Chinese and Turkish governments have a different view of what a criminal is, the Chinese can misuse this law to claim that any Uighur is criminal and seek their extradition," Isa said.

Representatives from the Congress are lobbying politicians to oppose the ratification of the treaty, which Erdogan introduced to parliament in April 2019.

'Sold out'

Australian-Uighur activist Arslan Hidayat said that by merely entertaining the treaty, Turkey had “sold out” the Uighurs.

“We Uighurs feel as though we have been sold out because obviously the Turks and the Uighurs have ethnic ties as well as religious ties. To be sold out by your own is very, very hurtful,” he told MEE.

Hidayat questioned Erdogan’s commitment to the Uighur cause, highlighting the disparity between Muslim-majority Turkey drawing closer to Beijing while France last week opposed a proposed EU-Chinese trade deal over the abuse of Uighurs.

He noted that Erdogan had positioned himself as a defender of Muslims by calling for a boycott of French products in October over President Emmanuel Macron's support for depictions of Prophet Muhammad.

“It’s certainly hypocrisy where you’ve got the government of supposed Muslim-majority countries selling out Uighurs, and the governments of non-Muslim countries standing up for Uighurs,” he said.

Turkish officials did not respond to a request by MEE for comment.

'I lost everything for downloading WhatsApp'

An investigation by Buzzfeed News this week revealed the construction of more than 100 factory buildings within the vast compounds used to house more than 1 million people in in Xingjiang, the latest evidence in a thickening catalogue of abuses committed against Uighurs and other minority Muslim groups.

One Uighur woman interviewed by Buzzfeed News said she was arrested in 2017, detained in a compound and forced to work in a factory, sewing garments for nine hours a day.

In the evenings after her shift, she was required to take classes, memorising and repeating Chinese Communist party propaganda and studying Mandarin, the language spoken by the majority of Chinese.

In September 2018, near the end of her time in the camp, police finally told her that she had been arrested for downloading the WhatsApp messaging app. “I lost everything, including my health,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Uighur activist Abduweli Ayup said that, to avoid a similar fate, Uighurs in Turkey were left with little choice but to speak up.

“In Turkey, people [Uighurs] are afraid of being arrested, so they are not very politically active,” he said.

“We need to stand up and say that we are Uighur and to tell people on social media that we can be victims of deportation.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/u...ar-deportation

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Salaam

More on Chinas muscle flexing.

China warns Australia

It appears China is beginning to warn off the second-tier players in what looks rather like preparation for a move on Taiwan:

Australia's military is 'weak,' 'insignificant' and will be the 'first hit' in any potential conflict over Taiwan, Chinese propagandists have warned.

The chilling message in the Communist Party mouthpiece, the Global Times, comes as Australian naval forces completed war game exercises with the US, France and Japan held between May 11 and 17 in the East China Sea.

The first ever training drill between the four nations called Exercise Jeanne d'Arc 21 - or ARC21 - practiced amphibious assaults, urban warfare and anti-aircraft defence - and was met with fury by Beijing.

'The People's Liberation Army doesn't even need to make pointed responses to the joint drill since it's insignificant militarily,' the article said. 'Australia's military is too weak to be a worthy opponent of China, and if it dares to interfere in a military conflict for example in the Taiwan Straits, its forces will be among the first to be hit. Australia must not think it can hide from China if it provokes. Australia is within range of China's conventional warhead-equipped DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile.'

Over the past year China has slapped more than $20billion worth of arbitrary trade bans and tariffs on Australian exports as an apparent punishment for calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic - which first appeared in Wuhan in 2019.

Tensions were further strained last month when various figures including the likes of Defence Minister Peter Dutton, Former Defence Minister Christopher Pyne and Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo, all suggested the 'drums of war' in the region are getting louder.

Just in case the warning hasn't been received, The Global Times has underlined the point in an interview with an Australian academic who is an expert on Sino-Australian relations:

Recently, the Morrison government has been constantly commenting on the possibility of Australian military engagement in a future US-China war over Taiwan. However, this was met with harsh criticism from former prime minister Kevin Rudd and numerous scholars. Is the Morrison government clear about the consequences of war? Why is Canberra standing close by Washington to confront China instead of striking a balance between the two like most other countries do? Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen talked to James Laurenceson (Laurenceson), director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney, over these issues.

GT: How is the Morrison government's hype of war dangerous and damaging? Do you think the hawkish officials from the Morrison government are clearly aware of the consequences of a military clash with China to Australia? Or is talking about war just an easy gesture to make for political expediency?

Laurenceson: Former prime minister Rudd's criticism of war talk was mostly because he regarded it as being deployed by members of the current Morrison government for domestic political gain. But in the process, the chest-thumping rhetoric further damages Australia's already dysfunctional relationship with China, nor did it inform the Australian public just how catastrophic the costs of such a war would be.

This political tactic of hyping an external "threat" to induce a "rallying around the flag" effect occurs in other countries too, including China and the US. That said, the risk of a kinetic conflict over Taiwan has increased compared with, say, five years ago. This means it is appropriate for sober-minded analysis and planning within the Australian government's Department of Defence, and in communicating to the public just what is at stake in terms of Australia's national interests and values. But the priority must be avoiding a military conflict, not hyping the risk for domestic political gain, or regarding it as inevitable and now starting to treat China as a de-facto enemy. China is far more a friend to Australia than an enemy.

GT: Most analysts would not deny that Washington can no longer expect a quick and easy victory in a war with China in the Western Pacific. Why has Australia under Morrison been boasting following the US and taking the risk?

Laurenceson: Within the Australian government, there is a significant gap between the key decision-makers and those more on the fringe. The reported hawkish comments by Minister for Defence, Peter Dutton, for example, were more qualified when you read the full transcript of what he said rather than just the version presented in the headlines...

GT: Although Australia and the US are allies, how much confidence do Australia's political and strategic circles have toward the actual support and protection Washington will (or can) offer to Australia?

Laurenceson: I think there is a high degree of confidence within political and strategic circles that the US would support Australia in a military conflict. Of course, there are a lot of scenarios between where things are now and one where Australia is being attacked in a military conflict. And along that spectrum, my view is that Australia should be realistic and not be "doe-eyed" about what it can expect from America.

Australia would be insane to place any trust whatsoever in the increasingly incomptent US military, which at this point would be more likely to send them a transgender dance troupe to twerk defiance at the Chinese than risk the chance that an aircraft carrier group would end up on the bottom of the Western Pacific. South Korea appears to understand this, as it certainly doesn't want any part of the Taiwan question.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/05/c...australia.html

Salaam

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blurb

For the first time in #Unscripted history! While they were in the UK for the Uyghur Tribunal and G7 summit, President Dolkun Isa and Inspector General Abdulhakim Idris of the World Uyghur Congress joined Dr Salman Butt in a special podcast not to be missed.

Salaam

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Blurb

As part of the Stand4Uyghurs National Khutbah Day, mosques up and down the United Kingdom spoke about the Uyghur Muslims suffering genocide in East Turkestan (aka Xinjiang). Islam21c Chief Editor, Dr Salman Butt, delivered a khutbah in Yaseen Youth Centre today as part of this.

Visit Stand4Uyghurs.com and make sure you stand with your brothers and sisters on 1st July 5-8pm outside the Chinese embassy in London!

That day is a symbolic day that our Uyghur brothers and sisters want us to stand up for them internationally - the 100 year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.

And more

Blurb

China is on the back foot. Now is our time to stand for the Uyghur Muslims facing genocide. Prove to them that we have not forsaken them by attending a national demonstration of solidarity during the Chinese Communist Party's 100th anniversary celebrations.

Salaam

Chinese propoganda is rather inept

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Salaam

Another update

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Right on cue.

Banks not tanks

People often accuse China of being imitative rather than creative, and stealing techniques and technology rather than inventing it. Well, it looks like they learned a rather nasty new trick from the West's globalist bankers and are applying it effectively with vigor around the world:

Perched atop massive cement pillars that tower above Montenegro's picturesque Moraca river canyon is an incomplete highway that threatens to bankrupt the little Balkan nation.

China Road and Bridge Corporation, the state-owned company which is building the bridge with imported Chinese workers, has not yet finished constructing the first section of the 270-mile highway to the Serbian capital Belgrade.

The first instalment on a $1 billion loan from China's state bank is due this month but it's unclear whether Montenegro, whose debt has soared to more than double its GDP because of the project, will be able to pay it back.

A copy of the loan contract reviewed by NPR shows that if Montenegro misses the deadline, Beijing has the right to seize land inside the country - as long as it doesn't belong to the military or is used for diplomatic purposes.

Furthermore, the country's former government green-lighted for a Chinese court of arbitration to have the final say on any contractual disputes.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been engaging in debt-trap diplomacy for decades. The Chinese offer is actually less burdensome and less controlling... unless the country defaults. Which is how China is going to snap up very inexpensive property all around the world and there is literally nothing that the globalists - who invented the scheme - can do to stop it.

Nationalism and the ability to default has been the only answer to this sort of financial predation, but even nationalism won't help much when the lender holding the collateral has a massive military to back up his legal claims.

It's always more efficient to invade-and-occupy using banks rather than tanks.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/07/banks-not-tanks.html

Salaam

Another update

Beijing Watch

In early June the first hearings of the Uyghur tribunal - an independent hearing chaired by barrister Geoffrey Nice to hear evidence from detention survivors about whats happening in Xinjian, China - took place in London. the evidence is no longer news, but still horrible.

Mihrigul Tursun, released from two years detention, found two of her four year old triplets seriously ill, the third dead, all bearing mysterious surgical scars. Tursunay Ziyadin described forced sterilisation. Bumeryem Rozi described forced abortion at five months of pregnancy, with a needle being passed into her stomach. Shes says eight other pregnant women were taken at the same time. An Uyghur doctor testified to carrying out forced abortions and being haunted by seeing an aborted baby in a bucket, still moving.

We know the birth rates in Uyghur regions have fallen dramatically since 2015. Survivors testified to routine rape and gang rape, forced serialisation, child removals, electrocution, beatings and physical torture, and retaliation by the state against any Uyghurs with relatives outside China. The Uyghurs are being brutalised, intimidated, sterilised and aborted out of existence.

The tribunal is a 'peoples response' to the failure of the United Nations or the International Criminal Court to hold China to account, despite many individual countries (including the US and UK) having openly accused it of genocide. The UN Security Council cannot pass a resolution without Chinas agreement. The Human Rights Council is equally toothless.

Yet there is something we can do. The Chinese government cares what its public thinks, as evidenced by its hysterical response to talk of genocide. It has declared the tribunal 'blasphemy against the law' and an illegal publicity stunt to smear Xinjian, issuing sanctions against the organisers.

China shrugged denials as the first rumours leaked from Xinjian in 2017 have morphed into a stream of ridiculous counter claims, from films of Uyghurs dancing in re education centre videos to coerced televised testimonies by relatives of survivors, denouncing them as immoral traitors, all paraded in front of Western journalists in a frenzy of pathetic self defence.

Why? Because try as the authorities might, China vase population hears what the Western public hears. China may have the UN in a straightjacket and lie outside the jurisdiction of the ICC, but the accusation of genocide has it on the back foot. Calls are going out for a full boycott of next February Beijing Winter Olympics. The Irish government recently declared it would send no officials and the EU parliament has voted for a diplomatic boycott. Last week the UK parliament debated the same thing, with many of these points passionately made - but to no avail. The motion passed, but the government was non committal: IT has made no decision, it is already doing enough (despite Iain Duncan Smith suggesting otherwise).

Its time to order the window stickers. At a time when global sport hold everyone attention and Gareth Southgate's men take the knee, we can all show the abusers we can see them.

Source - PE No: 1552

Salaam

Another update, this has caused a lot of controversy and debate.

A Reluctant Embrace: China’s New Relationship with the Taliban

As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan and leaves a security vacuum there, is China moving in by cozying up to the Taliban? On July 28, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a high-profile official meeting with a delegation of nine Afghan Taliban representatives, including the group’s co-founder and deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. This was not the first visit by Taliban members to China, but the meeting was unprecedented in its publicity, the seniority of the Chinese attendees, and the political messages conveyed. Most notably, Wang used the meeting to publicly recognize the Taliban as a legitimate political force in Afghanistan, a step that has major significance for the country’s future development.

Even so, close examination of the meeting’s details and the Chinese government’s record of engagement with the Taliban reveals that the future path of the relationship is far from certain. Not only is the endgame of the armed conflict in Afghanistan undetermined. There are also questions about how moderate the Taliban will ever be, which has a tremendous impact on Chinese officials’ perception of, and policy toward, the organization. Additionally, despite the narrative that Afghanistan could play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative as well as in regional economic integration, economics is not yet an incentive for China to lunge into the war-plagued country. China has been burned badly in its previous investments in Afghanistan and will tread carefully in the future. In an effort to further its political and economic interests, the Chinese government has reluctantly embraced the Taliban, but it has also hedged by continuing to engage diplomatically with the Afghan government.

China’s Public Recognition of the Taliban as a Legitimate Political Force

In 1993, four years after the Soviet Union had withdrawn its last troops from Afghanistan and one year after the Afghan communist regime had collapsed, China evacuated its embassy there amid the violent struggle then taking place. After the Taliban seized power in 1996, the Chinese government never established an official relationship with that regime. The Taliban’s fundamentalist nature, their association with and harboring of al-Qaeda, and their questionable relationship with Uighur militants all led Chinese officials to view them negatively.

Even as China has maintained its official recognition of the Afghan government, in recent years, Chinese officials have developed a relationship with the Taliban in response to the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and shifts in the balance of power on the ground. In 2015, China hosted secret talks between representatives of the Taliban and Afghan government in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. In July 2016, a Taliban delegation — led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, then the group’s senior representative in Qatar — visited Beijing. During the trip, the Taliban representatives reportedly sought China’s understanding and support for their positions in Afghan domestic politics. China’s engagement efforts intensified in 2019, as peace talks between the United States and the Taliban gained speed. In June of that year, Baradar, who had become head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar and is viewed as a moderate figure by Chinese officials, visited China for official meetings on the Afghan peace process and counter-terrorism issues. After the negotiations between the Taliban and the United States in Doha faltered in September 2019, China tried to fill the void by inviting Baradar again to participate in a two-day, intra-Afghan conference in Beijing. It was originally scheduled for Oct. 29 and 30 of that year. It was postponed at least twice, in October and November, before China and ultimately the world plunged into the COVID-19 crisis. The meeting never took place.

China’s keen and active engagement with the Taliban reveals Beijing’s deepening perception of the group’s critical role in Afghanistan after the U.S. troop withdrawal. During his meeting with Baradar last month, Wang publicly described the Taliban as “a crucial military and political force in Afghanistan that is expected to play an important role in the peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction process of the country.” This was the first time that any Chinese official publicly recognized the Taliban as a legitimate political force in Afghanistan, a significant gesture that will boost the group’s domestic and international standing. As Chinese officials battle a reputation for cozying up to the Afghan Taliban — designated a terrorist organization by Canada, Russia, and others — it is important for them to justify the rationale for their engagement.

Wang did not forget to diss Washington in the meeting with the Taliban: He emphasized “the failed U.S. policy on Afghanistan” and encouraged the Afghan people to stabilize and develop their country without foreign interference. Although the United States was not the focus of the meeting, Chinese officials did draw a contrast between what they consider America’s selective approach to Afghan politics and China’s “benevolent” role by virtue of its self-proclaimed noninterference principle and amical approach to all political forces in Afghanistan.

The third aspect of Wang’s message focused on the demand that the Taliban “sever all ties with all terrorist organizations, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement,” a Muslim separatist group founded by militant Uighurs. Although many have questioned the existence of the organization, and the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. Terrorist Exclusion List last November, the presence of Uighur militants in Afghanistan and their political aspirations are real. This issue has been a priority for Chinese officials in their dealings with all political forces in Afghanistan. In fact, without the Taliban’s public promise in July not to harbor any group hostile to China, it is questionable whether Chinese officials would have issued such a high-profile recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political force at all.

China’s Balancing Diplomacy

While the Taliban delegation’s recent visit to Beijing has garnered much publicity, less attention was paid to what happened just prior to it. Twelve days before, General Secretary Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Xi emphasized “China’s firm support of the Afghan government to maintain the nation’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.” The call highlighted that not only does China still recognize Ghani’s government as the legitimate representative of Afghanistan, but that Beijing also has pledged its support to Ghani in relation to the peace process and much-needed COVID-19 relief, at least for the time being.

There are different views in China over the likely outcome of the conflict between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Although many analysts assess that the Taliban will eventually prevail, some prominent Chinese experts have argued that the group’s victory is “only one of the possibilities” and that its territorial advances have been exaggerated. Even if many signs point to potential victory by the Taliban, the nature and timing of that event remain to be seen. For the Chinese government, uncertainty about the future of Afghan politics underscores the need for a balanced approach that maintains ties with both sides, as perfectly illustrated by Xi’s phone call with Ghani and Wang’s meeting with the Taliban.

As long as the civil war in Afghanistan persists, the Chinese government will continue to pursue this diplomatic balancing act as the best way to promote its interests. Indeed, China needs both the Afghan government and the Taliban to help protect the security of Chinese assets and nationals on the ground, as well as to combat organizations such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. In the event the Taliban and Afghan government end up in a prolonged stalemate, China also desires to play the role of a mediator — even if outsiders see it more as a facilitator — which requires China not to pick a side.

A China-Taliban Romance?

The meeting between Wang and the Taliban delegation was not all cozy. And China’s budding relationship with the group comes with conditions. Wang told his visitors — in a style reminiscent of a lecture — that they need to “build a positive image and pursue an inclusive policy.” The implied message is that if the Taliban enact draconian measures again, this will inevitably affect China’s stance toward them. Indeed, some Chinese experts have called for the Taliban to make more changes in their policies in order to modernize and pursue a moderate direction. The Taliban’s ability and willingness to do so will determine the depth and breadth of China’s future engagement with them.

Chinese officials have felt a growing need to curry favor with the Taliban as the security situation in Afghanistan and the surrounding region has deteriorated. On June 19, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a rare warning calling for all Chinese nationals and entities in Afghanistan to “evacuate as soon as possible” in anticipation of intensified fighting in the country. Two days after the Wang-Taliban meeting, the Foreign Ministry issued the same warning once again. In neighboring Pakistan, three high-profile attacks against Chinese nationals have been launched in the last four months: the April 22 bombing of a hotel in Quetta where the Chinese ambassador was staying, a bus explosion in Kohistan that killed nine Chinese engineers in mid-July, and the shooting in Karachi of a car carrying Chinese engineers on the same day the Taliban delegation met with Wang. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack and analysts also suspected that it is culpable in the other attacks. Some Chinese experts have warned that the security vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could lead to an intensification of violence against Chinese nationals in the region. Hence, Chinese officials will likely see a need to rely on the Afghan Taliban not to target China, as well as to help influence or rein in those who might.

The relationship is born of necessity rather than preference. Many Chinese officials and analysts have doubts about how modernized the Afghan Taliban will ever be. Although some in China assess that the Taliban have become more pragmatic, there is no guarantee for what their policy will look like, especially regarding relations with radical Islamic organizations in the region. In addition, even if the core of the Taliban adopts a neutral, or even friendly, policy toward China, whether it could rein in all of the group’s radical factions remains a major question. Chinese officials don’t see many choices other than working with the Afghan Taliban, but the relationship will be complex, and its course will be determined by numerous factors in the months and years ahead.

Economics Not Yet an Incentive

The Taliban have openly welcomed Chinese investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and have indicated they would guarantee the safety of investors and workers from China. However, China is unlikely to lunge into Afghanistan with major investment in the foreseeable future. There has consistently been a disconnect between Chinese rhetoric regarding Afghanistan’s economic potential and the actual scale of Chinese commercial projects in the country. In 2019, the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan emphasized the important role Afghanistan could play in China’s Belt and Road Initiative as well as in Chinese-Pakistani-Afghan regional economic integration. Nevertheless, that rosy picture is not supported by the actual data. For the first six months of 2021, total Chinese foreign direct investment in Afghanistan was only $2.4 million, and the value of new service contracts signed was merely $130,000. That suggests that the number of Chinese companies and workers in Afghanistan is declining significantly. For the whole of 2020, total Chinese foreign direct investment in Afghanistan was $4.4 million, less than 3 percent of that type of Chinese investment in Pakistan, which was $110 million for the same year.

China has been burned badly in its investments in Afghanistan. Its two major projects to date — the Amu Darya basin oil project by China’s largest state-owned oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation, and the Aynak copper mine by state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation and the Jiangxi Copper Company Limited — have both been ill fated. The challenges have included archeological excavation that halted the progress of the Aynak copper mine, security threats, and renegotiation of terms as well as the challenges of resettling local residents. Among these, political instability and security threats have been the top concerns. As long as the security environment remains unstable, China is unlikely to launch major economic projects in Afghanistan. The American troop presence there was not the factor hindering Chinese economic activities. In fact, Chinese companies had benefited from the stability that U.S. troops provided. Therefore, the U.S. withdrawal is unlikely to encourage major Chinese investment.

Walking a Tightrope

In anticipation of prolonged conflict in Afghanistan, Beijing is trying to strike a balance in its diplomacy toward the Afghan government and the Taliban. Chinese officials’ recent recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political force is significant. However, the prospects for that relationship remain uncertain as the Taliban’s future policies are unclear. China has the capacity to play a bigger role in the country economically, but a willingness to do so will only emerge when there are signs of sustainable stability. China has been weaving a net of bilateral, trilateral (China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), and multilateral engagements to encourage that stability. If stability does not emerge in the foreseeable future, China most likely will avoid deep economic involvement in Afghanistan and will work with both the Afghan government and the Taliban to protect its interests on the ground.

https://warontherocks.com/2021/08/a-...h-the-taliban/

I can't see the Taliban getting on with anti God Red China. Afghanistan is rich in mineral resources and it will need to buddy up to a super power if it wants to survive. Russia is probably the best candidate as there are Christian and Muslim states and it is very close to Afghanistan. USA is far away and very Zionist and culturally, politically, morally and ideologically manipulating and seething with cultural Marxist wokes-- probably the most obnoxious country on Earth.