China’s recent unprecedented move on ceremonially accepting the Taliban’s ambassador to PRC in Beijing raised mixed signals around the world. According to the Taliban’s chief spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, “China is the only country to officially approve Islamic Emirate’s ambassador”. It is a rather reciprocal move by China as the country’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, also received an official acceptance in September, last year. 

 

These “diplomatic romans” go further back to the initial official contact between sides when Wang Yi of China met with the representative of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, acting Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban government, in Doha on October 2021. Even earlier, on July 2021, the Taliban delegation and China’s former Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Tianjin.

 

China’s seemingly proactive foreign policy towards Afghanistan can well be a trigger for various interpretations the first of which could be characterized as the Chinese strive to develop its own narratives and approaches in relation to the Taliban acknowledgement issue. Second, China as a forerunner of a green development, will definitely need an enormous natural resource for its green development endeavour, thereby, Afghanistan could probably be an important destination for satisfying China’s appetite in this field. Third, acknowledging the Taliban’s capacity in providing relatively secure environment for the Chinese interests in Afghanistan such as fighting terrorism and creating transportation corridors, China seems to be winning time as a first-runner. 

 

Moreover, China probably believes that diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government will come naturally providing an active engagement mixed with the capacity-building prevails.