Beijing’s envoy to Afghanistan has stated that China will provide the Taliban with tariff-free access to its massive construction, energy, and consumer industries as the ailing resource-rich but diplomatically isolated dictatorship seeks to expand its markets.
Beijing has attempted to strengthen its connections with the Taliban since they gained control of Afghanistan in 2021, but, like all governments, has refrained from publicly acknowledging the group’s government due to international concerns over its human rights record, particularly that of women and children.
However, the impoverished country might provide a plethora of valuable mineral resources to Beijing’s supply chain security.
Selling Afghanistan’s lithium, copper, and iron deposits to the world’s largest commodities buyer would help the Taliban prop up their ailing economy, which the United Nations says has “basically collapsed,” while also providing a much-needed revenue stream as the country’s overseas central bank reserves remain frozen.
According to Chinese customs data, Afghanistan exported $64 million in goods to China last year, with shelled pine nuts accounting for nearly 90% of the total, but the Taliban government has stated that it is determined to find foreign investors willing to help it diversify its economy and profit from its mineral wealth.
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that goods entering China’s $19 trillion economy from “the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China” would not be subject to import duties.
Vice Commerce Minister Tang Wenhong repeated the policy at a press conference in Beijing to prepare for China’s annual flagship import ex.
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