China/Afghanistan. Beijing’s Strategic Moments with Taliban: Policy, Strategy and Worldview (Jagannath P. Panda, IDSA)

The future of geo-political security and power-balancing in the Middle-East/West Asia and regions adjacent to South and Central Asia is at present being drawn in Afghanistan. Post the US troops’ withdrawal, the Taliban have returned to power for a second time after two decades in Kabul. This issue brief evaluates the role and behavioural approach of China towards Taliban in a rapidly changing Afghanistan. In specific, the brief examines Beijing’s policy, evolving strategic outlook and evaluates its growing worldview vis-à-vis Taliban. The brief essentially concludes that while the ascent of Taliban is not unfavourable to Beijing, it remains an outcome that Beijing would not have liked to see realised in the way that it did. Beijing’s threat perception of what Afghanistan under Taliban could mean for its own national security is looked at keeping in mind the broader political Islam outlook.

Beijing’s Strategic Moments with Taliban: Policy, Strategy and Worldview | Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (idsa.in)