The Taliban, which now functions as Afghanistan’s government, has agreed to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during talks between the foreign ministers of both countries, Qin Gang and Amir Khan Muttaqi, hosted by Islamabad.

China is one of the few countries in the world to formally recognize the Taliban as the legitimate governing entity of Afghanistan. While most statements from the meeting did not mention the BRI by name, the Taliban reportedly agreed to join the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the local sector of the BRI.

The BRI is a global program in which China offers loans to impoverished countries meant to be used to pay China to develop expensive infrastructure projects.

When the countries inevitably fail to manage to pay the loans, reportedly featuring high interest rates and other predatory provisions, the Chinese Communist Party seizes the projects, giving Beijing a foothold in that country and eroding its sovereignty.

Among the countries most negatively affected by the BRI are Sri Lanka, which lost control of its critical Hambantota port for nearly 200 years, and Kenya, which has seen a surge in racist attacks on locals by Chinese nationals since signing onto the plan.

Despite the widely documented negative consequences of the BRI, the Taliban appears to have embraced China’s investment.

Following Muttaqi’s visit to Pakistan, the Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced that Chinese government-approved companies had already committed to as much as $2 billion in investments in Afghanistan since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban took over the country.

“The contracts have been signed for the extraction of mines, in areas of providing services at the airports, and the formation of industrial parks,” Ministry spokesman Akhundazada Abdul Salam Jawad said this weekend, according to Afghanistan’s Tolo News network. “Practical work has begun and total investment is reaching $2 billion. There will be contracts for the modernization of customs offices and other areas with foreign companies.”

CGTN reported that Chinese FM Qin Gang in a meeting with acting FM Amir Khan Muttaqi called for “advancing China-Pakistan-Afghanistan cooperation dialogue on the principles of mutual benefit and win-win results.”
"China will, as always, respect Afghanistan's sovereignty,… pic.twitter.com/hrmRPCD4MR

— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) May 6, 2023

China is currently committing genocide against majority Muslim ethnic groups in occupied East Turkistan, on the other side of the border from the Taliban’s Afghanistan. While the Taliban is a jihadist terror organization, it has not only failed to object to the slaughter of Muslims by its next-door neighbor but vowed to support Beijing’s efforts in exchange for financial support.

The Taliban jihadist group ruled Afghanistan for much of the 1990s and lost power following the American invasion in late 2001, a response to the September 11 Islamist massacres in America that year. The group seized Kabul and sent the then-government of the country fleeing in August 2021 after leftist American President Joe Biden broke a deal with the jihadists, brokered under predecessor Donald Trump, to end the American military presence in the country on May 1 of that year.

The Taliban responded to Biden extending the 20-year-old war by launching a nationwide campaign against the weak Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), whose members mostly fled across the border to other countries. Then-president Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul without a fight on August 15.

This piece was written by LifeZette on May 8, 2023. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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