China believes in trade, business, investment and development. It does not impose its opinion, culture or language on others. It does not have colonist past. China is the partner of trade, investment and development and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) connected with 155 countries till August,2023, accounting two third of the world population and more than 40% of the world’s GDP. According to Centre for Economic and Business Research, Belt and Road, Initiative (BRI) is likely to increase the world GDP by US$ 7,100 billion per annum by 2040.
Afghanistan a country of brave people who always fought against foreign invasion is now under the control of Taliban. Taliban have great desire to eliminate corruption from Afghanistan which was the order of the day during American forces presence and its puppet governments. To eliminate corruption, it is very important to provide jobs to people and to raise their standard by providing them necessities of life. There is no difference of life standard between common people and ruling Taliban so they enjoy confidence of their people. To move towards the betterment of their people, Taliban signed mining contract worth US$ 6.5 billion in with China. It is part of seven mining contracts a historical and game changing deal. The extraction and processing of iron ore, lead, Zinc and gold which are present in Afghanistan and it is estimated that there are natural and mineral resources of US$ 1,000 billion. This US$ 6.5 billion is equal to half of GDP of Afghanistan. It is also a news that Chinese companies are going to invest about US$ 10 billion to extract Lithium from mines in Afghanistan. Since 2021 China has announced multi projects in Afghanistan including copper mines, lithium extraction, road and highways, railways projects all of these worth billions of dollars. Afghanistan is a way to Central Asian countries so peace and development in Afghanistan means to pave the way for peace and development in Central Asian Countries. If Afghanistan becomes the partner of peace and development with China it will open the doors of central Asian countries to be connected with Pakistan’s Gwadar port and through Gwadar they might link with China and it will change the destiny of the region. The acting minister for mines and petroleum Shahabuddin Delaware, met with the Chinese company’s manager in Kabul and said that the investment would create 120,000 direct jobs and one million indirect jobs in the country.
Lithium is used to make car battery and China dominates in car battery manufacturing and has the share of 80 percent of lithium refining, 77 percent of cell capacity and 60 percent of battery components.
% of world’s market share held by China
Lithium 80
Cell Capacity 77
Battery Capacity 60
Now China has the huge lead over its competitors. Joining hands with Taliban gives further edge to China. This deal and implementation would pave the way for development and to reduce extremism. Due to war, corruption and bad governance for several years in Afghanistan about 90% of its population lives in poverty, 77% depend on food aid, so Chinese investment would help Afghanistan to reduce poverty and to raise the living standard of its people.
Now due to enormous cost of petroleum and one of the major causes of spreading pollution there is a fast trend to replace the fuel-based vehicles to those electric one. Here China again is the world champion which has 14% share in world’s electric cars in 2022. It has sold about 10 million electric cars.
Electric Vehicles sold by China
Year Electric cars sold by China Global share %
2010 50,000 0.04
2018 2,000,000 2.00
2019 2,200,000 2
2020 3,000,000 4
2021 6,000,000 8
2022 10,000,000 14
Car running on petroleum make noise but electric vehicles do not make noise, they do not need frequent maintaining cost. Common fuel-based car has 2,000 moving parts while Electric Vehicle has only 20. There is always a fear of catching fire in fuel-based car while electric car does not have such fear. Electric Cars do not have engine. In 2021 China alone sold 3.5 million electric vehicles, Germany with 0.6 million, was second one. In 2022 about 55% sales of electric cars was increased and China got its full benefit and generated US$ 134 billion from selling electric cars.
Lithium Exports
Country % in Lithium export
Australia 47
Chili 30
China 14
Lithium is found in Afghanistan’s Gazni and Kunar province and Afghanistan is called Lithium’s Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan also would like to extract oil with the help of Chins and initially Chinese company will extract 1,000 tons daily and will enhance to 20,000 tons per day. China and Afghanistan are close neighbors with longstanding friendship between the two peoples. Under the current situation, China’s position on the Afghan issue is as follows:
Adhering to the “Three Respects” and “Three Nevers”. China respects the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, respects the independent choices made by the Afghan people, and respects the religious beliefs and national customs of Afghanistan. China never interferes in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, never seeks selfish interests in Afghanistan, and never pursues so-called sphere of influence. Supporting moderate and prudent governance in Afghanistan. China sincerely hopes that Afghanistan could build an open and inclusive political structure, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, and engage in friendly exchanges with all countries especially neighboring countries. We hope the Afghan Interim Government will protect the basic rights and interests of all Afghan people, including women, children and all ethnic groups, and continue working actively to meet Afghan people’s interests and the international community’s expectations. Supporting peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan. China will continue to do its best to help Afghanistan with reconstruction and development, make plans with Afghanistan and fulfill its assistance pledges, promote steady progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation, and actively carry out cooperation in such fields as medical care, poverty alleviation, agriculture, and disaster prevention and mitigation, so as to help Afghanistan realize independent and sustainable development at an early date. China welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road cooperation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity that will transform Afghanistan from a “land-locked country” to a “land-linked country”. Supporting Afghanistan in encountering terrorism resolutely and forcefully. Security is the foundation and prerequisite of development. Calling for greater bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation.
Urging the US to live up to its commitments and responsibilities to Afghanistan. It is a widely-held view in the international community that, by seizing Afghanistan’s overseas assets and imposing unilateral sanctions, the US, which created the Afghan issue in the first place, is the biggest external factor that hinders substantive improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The US should draw lessons from what happened in Afghanistan, face squarely the grave humanitarian, economic and security risks and challenges in Afghanistan, immediately lift its sanctions, return the Afghan overseas assets, and deliver its pledged humanitarian aid to meet the emergency needs of the Afghan people. Opposing external interference and infiltration in Afghanistan. It is a shared view of regional countries that the military interference and “democratic transformation” by external forces in Afghanistan over the past 20-odd years have inflicted enormous losses and pain on Afghanistan. It will be difficult to eliminate the negative impacts for many years to come. To help Afghanistan achieve sustained peace and stability, relevant countries should not attempt to re-deploy military facilities in Afghanistan and its neighborhood, practice double standards on counter-terrorism, or advance their geopolitical agenda by supporting or conniving at terrorism. Strengthening international and regional coordination on the Afghan issue. Under the new circumstances, Afghanistan should be a platform for cooperation among various parties rather than geopolitical games. China supports all plans and measures that are conducive to political settlement of the Afghan issue, and will actively engage in multilateral coordination through such mechanisms and platforms as the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the Afghan Issue among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)-Afghanistan Contact Group, the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, the Informal Meeting of China-Russia-Pakistan-Iran Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan, the Troika Plus Meeting and the United Nations, in an effort to build consensus and synergy for stability in and assistance to Afghanistan at regional and international levels. Enabling solution to Afghanistan’s humanitarian and refugee issues. China is concerned about the situation of Afghan refugees and will continue to provide assistance through bilateral and multilateral channels. China supports relevant UN agencies in playing a positive role in this regard, applauds the efforts by regional countries, and calls on the international community to provide continuous humanitarian and development assistance to jointly help Afghanistan rebuild its economy and create favorable conditions for the final settlement of the refugee issue. Supporting Afghanistan’s fight against narcotics. China looks forward to and supports more concrete actions by Afghanistan to counter narcotics cultivation, production and illicit trafficking, and will work with the international community to help Afghanistan with alternative development and crackdown on cross-border drug-related crimes, so as to eliminate the source of narcotics in the region.