Why Has Beijing Been Left Empty-Handed?
The Taliban’s disregard for China’s recent invitation to Mullah Yaqoob to visit the country is a sign that a large portion of the Taliban have decided, in future regional developments, to stand with the United States rather than rely on China.
For decades, Afghanistan has been the arena for the power struggle of global powers. In the twentieth century, Afghanistan was the site of bloody competition between the United States and the former Soviet Union, and now China and the United States have similar intentions.
Russia, although it tries to present itself as an active player in Afghanistan’s affairs, is more of a spectator than an actor. The Russians, in Syria as well, abandoned all their capacities and handed over that country, despite its great importance, to America’s proxies. Most likely, given what is happening in Ukraine, the Russians, from a passive position, have abandoned Syria and become mere onlookers regarding Afghanistan.
In contrast, China, as the main rival of the United States, is striving to consolidate its influence in the region. Beijing, with multi-billion-dollar investments in Pakistan and with an eye on Afghanistan’s vast resources and its strategic position in the “Belt and Road Initiative,” is eager to block America’s presence in the region.
China’s invitation to Taliban leaders for talks on the return of U.S. forces to the Bagram Air Base is an attempt to make America’s regional decisions more costly.
However, the experience of past decades has shown that none of the foreign powers have taken any steps toward Afghanistan’s development and prosperity, and their claims of investing in Afghanistan’s economic projects have been nothing but major lies to justify their aggression against the country.
It is precisely for this reason that Afghanistan, resting on the most precious natural resources, has always remained deprived of basic infrastructure, and its people have remained unable to benefit from their God-given wealth.
Even during the Republic, billions of dollars in funds poured into Afghanistan, but since America had no intention of developing Afghanistan, no major steps were taken in favor of the Afghan people. In the end, America’s handover of power to the Taliban was part of its game to preserve its dominance over Afghanistan.
In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, a country that has been the site of interference from all neighbors and foreign powers, it has become a paradise for securing U.S. interests at the lowest cost. America’s rival countries, despite spending money on the Taliban, remain empty-handed with no achievements.
Even China, which had expected the Taliban to side with it in exchange for grand promises, realized in the matter of the return of U.S. forces to Bagram that this group is part of America’s regional game and will never enter into a strategic engagement with America’s rivals.
In any case, the conclusion is clear: just as twenty years of the Republic under American occupation brought nothing to Afghanistan and its people, so too will dependence of ruling powers on foreign powers—whether China, America, or any other country—bring no achievement for the nation.
Only when an inclusive central government emerges from the true will of the Afghan people—one not designed outside of Afghanistan and imposed on its people—can there be hope for Afghanistan to break free from the exhausting cycle of power rivalries.
_Seyed Ahmad Mousavi Mobalegh
