Collaborationists in Mutual Harmony

China government official

China hopes the Afghan #Taliban will put Afghanistan's national interests first, uphold commitment to peace talks, embrace the goal of peace, create a positive image and adopt an inclusive policy.

"The hasty withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan actually marks the failure of the U.S. policy toward Afghanistan. [Beijing stresses the need for foreign forces to stage a] responsible withdrawal [to ensure no security vacuum is created]."

"[The movement -- East Turkestan Islamic Movement; ETIM] poses a direct threat to China's national security and territorial integrity."

"It is the common responsibility of the international community to fight against ETIM."

"We hope the Afghan Taliban will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, including the ETIM, and resolutely and effectively combat them to remove obstacles, play a positive role and create enabling conditions for security, stability, development and cooperation in the region." 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

 

"Politics, economy and issues related to the security of both countries and the current situation of Afghanistan and the peace process were discussed in the meeting."

"Wang pointed out that the Afghan Taliban is an important military and political force in Afghanistan and is expected to play an important role in the country's peace, reconciliation and reconstruction process."

Mohammad Naeem, spokesperson, political office, Taliban

 

"With a U.S. exit from Afghanistan and the inability of [Afghan] President Ashraf Ghani to secure the country's borders, neighbors and regional powers have to hedge their bets regarding the future."

"While the Taliban give promises of security to Afghanistan's neighbors, Kabul keeps asking for help." "This perception of an embattled President Ghani doesn't make for good looks."

Torek Farhadi, former Afghan government adviser 

 

"[The Taliban] will never allow any force to use Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China." 

"The Afghan Taliban has the utmost sincerity to work toward and realize peace. It stands ready to work with other parties to establish a political framework in Afghanistan that is broadly-based, inclusive and accepted by the people and protect human rights, especially rights of women and children."

Taliban deputy political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar 

Brazen lies. For consumption by the international community. China, on the other hand knows full well with whom it deals in making a pact with the devil. Afghan Taliban politics is quite familiar to Beijing; a reflection of their own, where stark reality is in conflict with the comforting language of tolerance, sweetness and light. Each, China and the aspiring, soon-to-be reconquest of Afghanistan, are devoted to the ruthless journey of subduing and commanding their respective populations by all and any means.

 

The awkwardness between reality and diplomatic assurances shielded by the exercise in public relations where each paints itself as cognizant of the well-being of those whose lives they directly impact being uppermost in mind. Not that their manner of dictatorial rule must prevail and nothing must stand in the way of complete control. For the Chinese government that means any dissenters, be they ordinary citizens rebelling against tyranny or Chinese billionaires who risk all to criticize government be rewarded with the death sentence of life imprisonment.

 

The Taliban, not the least bit squeamish over distinctions of applying capital punishment for those who defy their theocratic dictatorship, simply slaughter those who stand in their way, those who make overtures to representatives of the democratic west, those who assume their protests will be allowed impunity. The hushed world looking in at the implosion of yet another country whom violent Islamists have destroyed, deplore the fate of women and girls once again imprisoned in their homes.

 

The Taliban with its links to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Pakistan intelligence service, employs the empty pantomime of  'peace talks' with the legitimate government of Afghanistan, its transparent intention to imitate such talks to appease outside critics while rampaging through the country attacking the Afghan national police and armed forces, sending suicide bombers to message civilians and foreign diplomats and NGOs that they will brook no resistance, expand the territory they control.  

Humvees belonging to Afghan Special Forces destroyed during heavy clashes with Taliban, Kandahar Province, July 13, 2021.

 

They now have complete control of Afghanistan's border crossings with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, China and Pakistan; Afghan government revenues from customs now in Taliban hands, as are the routes for trade. The Chinese Communist party in Beijing congratulates the Taliban on its demonstrated journey toward 'peace and reconciliation' with the government of Afghanistan which it is slowly and inevitably destroying. 

The Taliban leadership, however, is anxious for good relations with its neighbours to support its own legitimacy to claim itself the new government of Afghanistan, returning after an unfortunate hiatus. And China is only too happy to oblige, to legitimize its treachery. For a price, for nothing is ever as simple as it may appear. China, prepared to support the Taliban's rule giving it the opportunity to append a critical addendum; the Taliban must fulfill an obligation to China for China's full blessing.

When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed a nine-person delegation of the Taliban the opportunity to negotiate support for Taliban rule in exchange for an obligation to pledge non-support for Islamic separatist elements in Xinjiang making one contingent upon the other was timely and to the point. China through Mr.Wang stating its expectation the Taliban "play an important role in the process of peace, reconciliation and reconstruction" of Afghanistan. Even while the Taliban is actively engaged in destroying 'peace, reconciliation and reconstruction'.

 

This is not cynicism. This is diplomacy, Beijing-style. Where the U.S. and NATO failed because they attempted to destroy the ambitions of the Islamist Taliban and free Afghanistan from their anti-humanitarian shackles, what transpired was a "hasty withdrawal" concluding two decades of Western effort to pull Afghanistan up by its own bootstraps with foreign aid, investment, military strength and NGO efforts to democratize and opportunize the country to the benefit of its people. 

China's sequestration of its Uyghurs and other Muslims in 're-education' camps, to neutralize Beijing's fears of Islamist uprisings in Xinjiang province not a matter for the Taliban to raise in solidarity with other Islamist groups in a country hostile to their presence in the currently far-greater interests of Chinese support for Taliban rule in Afghanistan. So for the present the Taliban surrenders its support for and assistance to the Islamist insurgents in Xinjiang. All in good time, all in good time.

A guard stands in a watchtower in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, May 3, 2021