The Taliban has just taken over Kabul and Beijing was ready to accept the regime change for several reasons include cooperation to gain access to Afghanistan’s rare earth metals that are estimated to have a value of up to $3 trillion in 2020.
Hours after Taliban took over Afghanistan, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said that the country was looking forward to “friendly cooperation with Afghanistan.” Earlier, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of Taliban’s political committee and his team in Tianjin.
On Tuesday, Shamaila Khan, Director of Emerging Market Debt, AllianceBerstein told CNN’s “Squawk Box Asia that it should be an international initiative to make sure that Afghanistan was agreeing to exploit its minerals on behalf of Taliban that it would do so under strict humanitarian conditions, where human rights, and rights for women were preserved.
She said that there should be pressure on China if they were going to form alliances with Taliban in order to generate economic aid for them.
Khan had responded to a question about the commercial motivation behind China’s acceptance of Taliban, considering the trillions of dollars of rare earth metals present in Afghanistan.
Khan has analyzed the situation, but the ground reality remains that China is the biggest owner of rare earth metals and will look to fortify its position. It had already threatened to cut off rare earth minerals during its 2019 trade war with the U.S.
On August 15, The Global Times published an article where Chinese experts said that it was “totally groundless” to speculate that China might sent troops after the U.S. withdrawal. However, the tabloid said that China could contribute to “post-war reconstruction and development.”
Beijing would also push forward projects under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is an infrastructure investment plan that proposes to link China, Central Asia, Africa and Europe through rail, road, sea, and other links.
Afghanistan has rare earth elements such as:
- cerium
- lanthanum
- neodymium
- aluminum
- gold
- silver
- zinc
- mercury
These rare earth minerals are a huge asset for Afghanistan. China might ensure that it would extend all possible help to Afghanistan to mine these metals. It would do so in order to increase its already massive dominant market share reserves of rare earth minerals it already possesses.
Rare earth minerals are used in the manufacture of:
- high-tech devices
- defense
- automobiles
- clean energy equipment
