Taliban Hopes Beijing Can Contribute to the Rebuilding of Afghanistan, Spokesperson Says

Taliban fighters stand guard along a road near the site of an Ashura procession which is held to mark the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, along a road in Herat on Aug. 19, 2021, amid the Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan. Aref Karimi/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese regime has played a “constructive” role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, and the Tablian hopes that Beijing can contribute to the rebuilding of the country, said a Taliban spokesperson in a recent interview with Chinese state media.

“China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity—I think they can play a very big role in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman in Qatar told Chinese state-run CGTN television in English on Thursday.

Previously, the Chinese regime had played a “very constructive” role in the country’s “peace and reconciliation” process, he said.

Shaheen said that the Taliban and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had long been in contact.

He also revealed that Beijing had appointed a new official as a contact person with the Taliban.

“We have contact with him. Recently, our delegation had a meeting with him,” Shaheen said.

The interview comes after the Taliban took control of the country after a rapid series of advances, weeks before the U.S. forces were due to withdraw from the country. Since the takeover, the regime has embraced the group, and seized on the chaotic U.S. withdrawal for propaganda purposes.

The Chinese regime hasn’t been involved in any of Afghanistan’s conflicts in the past century, unlike the United States and its NATO allies who tried to establish and defend democracy for 20 years, and the Soviet Union which occupied the country from late 1979 to early 1989.

But the CCP has supported the Taliban both in arms and technology, according to a report by the Population Research Institute from September 2001. As an example, the report said that Huawei, China’s largest telecommunication company, allegedly contributed to building telecommunications networks for the Taliban, which supported Osama bin Laden and his terrorist attacks against the United States. Huawei has denied this allegation.

Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior Taliban commander, pauses while speaking with Reuters during an interview at an undisclosed location near Afghanistan-Pakistan border on Aug. 17, 2021. Stringer/REUTERS

After the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior leader of the Taliban who has access to the group’s decision-making, told Reuters that the Taliban regime would be a theocracy and have a similar power structure as per 1996 to 2001 when it then ruled the country.

Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi met with Taliban leaders earlier on July 28. During the meeting, the Taliban assured Beijing that it would not harbor militants who may launch attacks into China’s far west Xinjiang region.

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, the regime has declared its willingness to establish “friendly ties” with the group. It has not yet formally recognized the group.

“China respects the Afghan people’s intention and choice ... China will keep contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban,” said Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, on Aug. 16.

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying attends a news conference in Beijing, China, on Oct. 9, 2020. Thomas Suen/File/Reuters

At the same time, the CCP regime and its state-run media welcomed the Taliban’s rise and exulted in the American’s “defeat” in Afghanistan.

“[The United States] indeed is very much like a ‘paper tiger,’” Global Times, a hawkish CCP-controlled outlet, commented on Aug. 15.

It mocked the United States saying that the failure of the democracy in Afghanistan shows that it is weak, and claimed that China controlled its border tightly, “even a bird is hard to fly over from Afghanistan.”