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China Talks BRI, Mining with Afghanistan, Pakistan

China invited Afghanistan to formally join its Belt and Road Initiative and would like to deepen cooperation on mining. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the Afghan capital of Kabul for talks with Taliban government leaders. He also participated in trilateral talks with Afghan and Pakistani counterparts. ...

Are We Becoming Like the Taliban? Chinese Feminists Grapple with Women’s Rights, Afghanistan, and the Moral Policing

This week, a wave of outrage swept across China’s internet, not just over a university scandal, but over something deeper: growing anxiety that China’s society could be slipping toward Taliban-style moral authoritarianism. At the center of the storm was a disciplinary ...

Pakistan, Afghanistan Agree to Promote Regional Railway Project

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Afghanistan’s Acting FM Amir Khan Muttaqi agreed to push forward a regional rail project that would connect the two countries to Uzbekistan. This emerged after a call between the two on Sunday. The call follows ...

China Brokers Diplomatic Upgrade Between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Extends CPEC

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that Pakistan and Afghanistan would elevate their ties, following an informal meeting between Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in Beijing. The two countries agreed to deploy ambassadors and ...

Security and Trade Top Agenda in Fifth China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Meeting

While India and Pakistan battled one another in the Kashmir region over the weekend, in nearby Afghanistan, diplomats from the ruling Taliban government, Pakistan, and China met on Saturday for security and economic talks. This fifth round of trilateral talks focused on ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

China Vows Counterterrorism Cooperation with Pakistan Following Train Hijacking

China’s Foreign Ministry pledged enhanced counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan following the hijacking of a train by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). After a day-long standoff, Pakistani soldiers stormed the train and killed all 33 attackers. 21 hostages and four security personnel were also killed. ...

China in the Lead as Taliban Opens Afghanistan’s Mining Sector

By Claire Gounon A miner in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan poured water over a block of jade, exposing the green stone that is part of the Taliban authorities' push to capitalize on the country's rich mineral resources. ...

China Lodges Protest With Afghanistan Over Mine Worker Killing

China said Thursday it had lodged "solemn representations" with Afghanistan's Taliban government over the killing of a Chinese mine worker in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. "The Chinese side urgently lodged solemn representations with the Afghan side, demanding ...

Chinese Mine Worker Killed in IS-Claimed Attack in Afghanistan

Police said Wednesday a Chinese mine worker was killed in an attack in Afghanistan which the Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for, as the Taliban government attempts to project an image of security to encourage investment from Beijing. The Chinese ...

China Pulls Taliban Deeper into Central Asian Fold

China’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong, met with the Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and the acting Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid. The meeting was confirmed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday. She said the meeting aimed “to ...

Afghanistan Pursues Chinese Investment

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is using his presence at the China-led Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation in Tibet to meet bilaterally with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In the newest indication of growing ties between Kabul and Beijing, they 

China’s Complicated Involvement in Afghanistan’s Extractive Industry

During the 18-19 May China-Central Asia summit, President Xi Jinping pledged to “continue to help the Afghan people maintain security and stability and realize peace and reconstruction. We will work together to build a Central Asia that features no conflict.” While accepting the good tidings, the ...
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