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We also literally left giant weapon caches for the Taliban to use. We will pay for that, but in a different way.
by throwawaysea 5y ago
We also literally left giant weapon caches for the Taliban to use. We will pay for that, but in a different way.
- api 5y agoOr not? Maybe it’s China’s turn to burn trillions in Afghanistan.
- throwawaysea 5y agoChina is likely to gain trillions from their belt and road initiative expanding into Afghanistan and from getting involved with the mining of the $3T in mineral resources identified previously in Afghanistan. China has already recognized the new Taliban government and the Taliban previously welcomed a new relationship with China that would protect Chinese interests, as they put it. China literally met with the incoming Taliban leader earlier this year to forge that friendship.
- tyre 5y agoYes. They have also invested heavily in their relationship with Pakistan. Pakistan protected Bin Ladin and are deeply involved in Afghanistan. China can lean on Pakistan to compliment its direct relationship with the Taliban. Not to mention that the Chinese are significantly more motivated to make Afghanistan work. As a sign of their influence, the Taliban has said that whatever happens in China’s borders is their business. This was in response to questions about the Uighurs, which, you know, if you’re an Islamic regime you might at least pretend to care about.
- secondaryacct 5y agoAlso they dont humiliate you day and night calling your culture backward, a bonus when you want people to work with you.
- sul_tasto 5y agoI see this pattern a lot in the US. I don’t fully understand where it comes from, the early puritanical religious roots of the colonial period?
- leetcrew 5y agolarge scale "boots on the ground" invasions are pretty hard to sell to the american public. they don't generally want to see american soldiers die without a good reason. retaliating against the people who harbored bin laden is already a pretty good reason, and liberating the subjects of an oppressive regime is icing on the cake. of course, it's hard to paint a regime as oppressive without also calling them "backwards". after all, if they were as advanced as us westerners, surely they would have a free democratic society already. /s
- queuebert 5y agoNot well read on Chinese history are you?
- tuatoru 5y agoIt might be better put as "the Han Chinese think everyone else is a barbarian savage, but also, they prefer to leave their vassal states to run their internal affairs themselves. They don't call them barbarian savages on a daily basis."
- enkid 5y agoIf they can stabilize it without human rights abuses, then good for them.
- ericmay 5y agoRiiiight. With all those ports, infrastructure, and nice easy mountain terrain to navigate. And let’s say China does somehow befriend the Taliban and build all this infrastructure, and import hundreds of thousands of workers that somehow the Taliban doesn’t decide are yet another empire to kick out. What do you think they do with these resources? They make iPhones. That westerners buy. And again, even if they do somehow make this happen. Why should anybody care? It’s not like the US is losing these resources or something. And why would China, as large of a country as it is, need these resources? Is it even profitable to extract? I keep seeing this narrative and it seems to me to be hugely superficial at best. China and Russia would probably prefer the U.S. just keep wasting money and attention in Afghanistan.
- smegger001 5y agowhy bring in hundreds of thousands of workers when China can pay the Taliban to force the Afgans to do it and just send some engineers and managers
- greedo 5y agoThe modus operandi of China is employment for their people. In almost every country they've lent money for infrastructure, they've brought in their own construction people.
- issa 5y agoI think this is the fundamental fallacy in this whole situation. "Taliban" and "Afghans" are not two separate groups.
- smegger001 5y agoone is a radical armed violent subset of the other. in the same way that the klu kluk klan are american but America isn't the klan.
- issa 5y agoIt is a fraught comparison, but I would like to think that the Taliban has MUCH broader support in Afghanistan than the KKK does in the US.
- TheCuriousGuy 5y agoChina will get access to the natural resources at a fraction of what US spent in Afghanistan all these years. More discussion in this podcast episode: https://jingle.fm/p/tabadlabs-dragon-road-1570336991/s01-e08-china-in-a7a325de https://jingle.fm/p/tabadlabs-dragon-road-1570336991/s01-e08...
- Mizza 5y agoI see this a lot but don't understand why. China has every motivation to prop up the Taliban. A sister comment already noted the mineral resources, but don't forget the main function of Afghanistan as a nation: production of heroin. Narcopolitics are so fantastically more significant than ever gets any attention from "surface" media, but this is the name of the game. Chinese fentanyl has taken over the global opiate black market, so they have every incentive to support the Taliban who will repress the rival heroin trade over the US-backed government who supported it.
- jdavis703 5y agoThe Taliban taxes opium farming and manufacturing. It’s believed to be a significant source of revenue for them. But, China probably still has the upper hand in the opiate business here, because fentanyl is far easier to smuggle.
- 55555 5y agoChina has easier access to opium/heroin from the golden triangle anyway, if they need a non-syntheic.
- wavefunction 5y agoChina can have both, I don't see why having both Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle in your pocket is a bad thing if you're interested in opiate production at the global scale.
- Mizza 5y agoI'm skeptical of this common claim. Perhaps that was true when they were an insurgent force needing funds, but I don't think it will continue now that they are in power. Afghan heroin production was at its lowest - essentially none - after it was completely forbidden the last time the Taliban were in power in 2000/2001.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoI just heard the Taliban is tithing at 10% a year. In bad years, they don't expect any taxes. (It does look like the Taliban has lightened up a bit, but time will tell. Every news station is bashing every aspect of the Taliban.)
- NonContro 5y agoChina will not operate to Western standards of ethics. Look at how they maintain peace in Xinjiang. Their method of operation, if they eventually feel confident enough to annex new territories, will be like a modern version of Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Mohammed. ie, 'neutralize' all males who oppose, and all women will be expected to find a Han husband.