The government of China became the first in the world to accept a formal ambassador from the Taliban terrorist organization currently in control of Afghanistan. In remarks on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he expects the world will begin accepting the Taliban as a legitimate government “naturally.”
The Taliban is a Sunni jihadist terrorist group that waged war in Afghanistan for 20 years before toppling the U.S.-backed government of the country in August 2021 – the result of a decision by leftist President Joe Biden to extend the U.S. presence in the country beyond an agreed-upon May 2021 deadline.
No country or organization has accepted the Taliban as a legitimate government in a formal manner in the two years since, though the United Nations has greenlit collaboration with the Taliban as an “interim” or “caretaker” government. Rogue states such as China and Russia have also maintained communications with Taliban leaders and cut ties to diplomats representing the old regime.
The Chinese Communist Party has been at the forefront of legitimizing the Taliban, enabling business investments with Taliban entities and inviting the Taliban to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit in October. China sent an ambassador to Kabul – the first country to do so after the return of the Taliban to power – in September.
The Taliban has enthusiastically sought Chinese investment since August 2021, disregarding China’s ongoing genocide of Muslims on the other side of its border with Afghanistan, in occupied East Turkistan.
China has yet to formally accept the Taliban as anything beyond an “interim” Afghan government, but it became the first to accept an ambassador on Friday, according to the Taliban’s “foreign ministry.” The terrorist group published a photo of now-former deputy ministry spokesman Bilal Karimi presenting his credentials as Taliban ambassador to Beijing alongside Chinese official Hong Lei, who presides over the formal logistics of accepting ambassadors.
The People's Republic of China accepts Ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) December 1, 2023
Mawlawi Asadullah @BilalKarimi44 arrived in Beijing, November 24, 2023, and was received by diplomats of Embassy of IEA in China along with Mr. Yue Xiaoyong, pic.twitter.com/mQuRxi6UUl
Karimi is one of several longtime representatives of the Taliban to the media. He has played a significant role in denying the Taliban’s human rights abuses against women before the United Nations and other international venues. Karimi was also the spokesman who shared details about a meeting in March 2022 between Taliban “Foreign Minister” Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping during a China-hosted summit about the future of Afghanistan. Karimi said at the time that the Taliban was interested in formally joining the BRI.
“China respects the national sovereignty and the decisions of the people of Afghanistan. It does not interfere in the internal Afghan affairs, nor has it done so in the past,” Hong was quoted as saying during their meeting in the Taliban’s coverage of it.
“Assuring the Chinese side that Afghanistan does not pose a threat to anyone from it’s territory, Mr. Karimi outlined that regional stability & security is in the interest of all,” the Taliban statement detailed, “praised China’s positive & non-interference policy, & called China a good neighbor of Afghanistan.”
Asked about the acceptance of Karimi as a formal ambassador, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin encouraged the rest of the world to follow suit during his regular press briefing on Thursday.
“China believes that Afghanistan should not be excluded from the international community,” Wang insisted. After a small aside urging the Taliban to become “open and inclusive,” Wang added that Beijing expected “diplomatic recognition of the Afghan government [the Taliban] will come naturally as the concerns of various parties are effectively addressed.”
Calls for the Taliban to be “inclusive” – from the United States, the U.N., and a variety of non-state actors in the world – have largely been ignored. The Taliban has imposed a brutal radical Islamist dictatorship, founded on a fundamentalist, violent interpretation of Sharia, the Islamic law. It has banned women and girls from education beyond primary school, largely blocked them from maintaining jobs, and harassed women working for the United Nations (Karimi himself denied those allegations, despite the evidence to the contrary).
As a result, only other human rights violating states have engaged in contact with the Taliban, though companies from around the world have expressed interest in Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth. In September, shortly before the Belt and Road Forum, the Taliban announced that it had succeeded in attracting a variety of companies from Turkey, China, Iran, and the United Kingdom to its mining industry, signing contracts worth over $6.5 billion to develop more gold, iron, and lead mines in the country.
China, in particular, has openly expressed interest in exploiting Afghanistan’s rare-earth mineral reserves, believed to be worth as many as $3 trillion, and investing in industries such as agriculture.
“As the largest neighbor of Afghanistan, China is a vigorous partner for the war-battered country to get its economy back on track, given China’s experience and capability in related areas, such as agriculture and industrial infrastructure,” the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper asserted shortly after the Taliban’s rise to power.
