Beijing, China | Mon, August 30, 2021
According to state-run media, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Washington should assist the new “political structure” in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in maintaining normal government operations.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Wang also remarked during his phone call with Blinken on Sunday that the situation in Afghanistan has changed fundamentally and that all parties must make contact with the Taliban and actively guide it. The two senior diplomats spoke just days before the deadline for US troops to leave Afghanistan, which is set for Tuesday.
According to Xinhua, Wang believes that the United States should engage with the international community to offer economic and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, as well as assist the new Afghan political structure in carrying out normal governmental tasks and maintaining social stability.
So far, China has stated that the Taliban, an Islamist party that retook control earlier this month after being deposed by US-led forces in 2001, should develop a democratic framework in Afghanistan that will lay the groundwork for long-term peace.
China has warmed up to the Taliban in order to prevent the group’s political takeover in Afghanistan from inspiring separatist groups in China’s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region, which shares a border with the war-torn country.
According to regional experts, Beijing is anxious that the turmoil in Afghanistan may lead to terrorism in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where many Muslims opposed to increased state monitoring have been arrested as part of a “re-education” effort.
Concerning the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Wang warned Blinken that China “resolutely opposes” the US intelligence community’s latest “investigation report” on the origins of COVID-19, according to the news agency.
According to Xinhua, politicizing the origins is a political burden left by President Donald Trump’s prior administration, and the sooner the US side unloads this burden, the easier it will be to get out of the current problem.