China Is Not Going To Rush Into Afghanistan

View of a gold mine in Nor Aaba, Takhar province, Afghanistan. Omar Sobhani, Reuters  

CNBC: China’s rumored ambitions to dive into Afghanistan are overstated and unrealistic, experts say 

* While China has made clear its approval of the Taliban, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ready to commit to doing business with them. 

* Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is staggering — but security risks and a lack of infrastructure make investment there difficult. 

One of the first things many Western pundits predicted as the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan unraveled was the replacement in that power vacuum by China, long a critic of and strategic adversary to the U.S. 

Afghanistan has trillions of dollars worth of untapped mineral resources, and is in dire need of infrastructure investment, making it in theory a prime ground for China’s expansive Belt and Road Initiative. 

What’s more, China is one of the few countries and the only economic superpower to have so far established friendly relations with the Taliban, who shocked the world in early August by overtaking Afghanistan in a matter of days. 

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 WNU Editor: China has just provided $31 million in aid .... China extends a fast helping hand to the Taliban (Asia Times). But the Taliban government needs billions more to avoid economic collapse, and tens of billions to build the infrastructure to extract its mineral resources. China is not going to take that risk right now.