According to a Chinese dissident Jianli Yang, China intends to increase its political influence in Afghanistan and it will gradually satisfy the Taliban wishes while ensuring that its own interests are guaranteed and its concerns addressed.

In an opinion piece in The Diplomat, Jianli, founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China, writes Beijing will approach Afghan affairs more cautiously than people think and it currently faces two major challenges in Afghanistan. First, the Chinese Communist Party desperately wants to prevent the resurgence of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Xinjiang, he mentions, adding that Beijing certainly hopes that dealing with the Afghan Taliban will not compromise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“Although China intends to increase its political influence in Afghanistan, it has real interests to calculate and concerns to resolve. China will gradually satisfy the Taliban’s wishes while ensuring that its own interests are guaranteed and its concerns addressed. It will seek the greatest tangible benefits in return for political recognition of the Taliban regime,” he writes.

“The extremist religious views of the Taliban, who are overrunning Afghanistan, constitute a source of concern for Beijing. China is worried that the situation in Afghanistan could threaten the stability of Xinjiang, and is particularly worried that Taliban-controlled areas could become an external stronghold for separatist forces,” he adds.

“On the other hand, chaos in Afghanistan can breed religious extremism and terrorism, which is detrimental to China’s strategy to stabilise the Xinjiang region, and CPEC has already been targeted by terrorist groups both inside and outside of Pakistan. After the meeting with Wang, the Taliban expressed their hope that China will play a greater role in building the Afghan economy,” he writes.

The dissident said that Pakistan will be probably the closest collaborator China will have on Afghan affairs. “China has significant security interests in Pakistan. If China cooperates with Pakistan to support the Afghan Taliban and deal with terrorist groups, it would actually be killing two birds with one stone. China will put pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on extremists in their own country, and if Pakistan cooperates, it would not only benefit China’s development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, but also support the Afghan Taliban in promoting China’s strategic interest against India,” he adds.

ANKARA: While calling on other European countries to take responsibility for Afghans fleeing the Taliban, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara has no obligation to be a “Europe refugee warehouse”.

Erdogan’s remarks come as desperate Afghans attempt to leave the Taliban-led country. Thousands have flocked to Kabul airport in a bid to flee and now find themselves trapped without any means to escape. “Europe, which has become the centre of attraction for millions of people, cannot stay out of this problem by closing its borders just to protect the welfare of its citizens. With this attitude, Europe is turning its back on human values,” CNN quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan said that about half of the “irregular” migrants Turkey has registered in the last three years are from Afghanistan.

Turkey hosts around 5 million foreign nationals — including 3.6 million Syrians and 300,000 Afghans, said Erdogan.

According to a media report, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been allegedly stopping his ministers to speak or issue any statement over the Taliban’s recent takeover in Afghanistan.

Khan has told some members of his cabinet to keep quiet on Afghanistan as it’s a ‘sensitive’ matter. “Not all the ministers should speak on the subject at any platform, including media. Only the concerned ministers are authorised to make statements on the current situation of Afghanistan,” said Pakistan PM as per The Frontier Post report.

Afghan government —which collapsed on Sunday — had blamed several times Islamabad for interfering in its domestic affairs and supporting the Taliban to create unrest in the country. Afghans across the world also called to sanction Pakistan through staging protests and social media campaigns for their proxy war in Afghanistan.

Khan also expressed his happiness that there has been no loss of life of ordinary people following the Taliban takeover saying that now Afghans have to decide their future on their own, added The Frontier Post.

Khan recently met members of the Afghanistan delegation and said that no other country was as much interested in ‘peace’ in Afghanistan as Pakistan was.

KABUL: As per a media report, to stop people from entering the airport, the Taliban were firing into the air and beating people with AK-47. Reportedly, the Taliban attacked them despite having the required documents. “It’s a complete disaster. The Taliban were firing into the air, pushing people, beating them with AK47s,” Radio New Zealand (RNZ) quoted a person as saying who was trying to get through. “Everyone wants out,” said a member of an Afghan family after it arrived in Germany. “Every day is worse than the day before. We saved ourselves but we couldn’t rescue our families,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have asked the imams to urge the Afghans to not leave the country during Friday’s sermon as the collapse of government and takeover by the terror group have forced people in Afghanistan to leave the nation, as per a media report. The Taliban have issued sermon guidelines to imams and preachers across Afghanistan, telling them to urge citizens not to leave the country for fear or other reasons, Pakistan’s The News reported.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has assured to keep US troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his 31 August deadline for withdrawal.

“The US is committed to getting every American out of Afghanistan — even if it means potentially extending the mission beyond his 31 August deadline for a total withdrawal,” Biden said in an exclusive interview with ABC. Biden’s pledge came as 5,000 people were evacuated from Kabul’s airport and armed members of the Taliban kept some Afghans desperate to leave the country from reaching the airfield.

As the Taliban has once again taken control of Afghanistan after 20 years of US military operations, Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has expressed fear for women and girls in the war-torn country.

“The Taliban — who until losing power 20 years ago barred nearly all girls and women from attending school and doled out harsh punishment to those who defied them — are back in control. Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters,” Malala wrote in an op-ed published in New York Times on 17 August. She added: “In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away.

“We will have time to debate what went wrong in the war in Afghanistan, but in this critical moment, we must listen to the voices of Afghan women and girls. They are asking for protection, for education, for the freedom and the future they were promised. We cannot continue to fail them. We have no time to spare,” said Malala.

However, the Taliban has vowed to “respect women’s rights” in the country.

Raising scepticism of the Taliban’s vow, she wrote in New York Times: “Taliban’s history of violently suppressing women’s rights, Afghan women’s fears are real. Already, we are hearing reports of female students being turned away from their universities, female workers from their offices.”

Malala, an advocate for girls’ education, survived a Pakistani Taliban assassination attempt when she was just 15 years old when they shot her in the head. Since then the Oxford graduate has become a global figure promoting education for girls.