China’s role in an Afghanistan under the Taliban
With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the geopolitical landscape of Central and South Asia is shifting. How is China impacted by and shaping these developments? What are Beijing’s interests in Afghanistan and how is it now working to prop them up? What might a future China-Taliban relationship look like? Will China be able to capitalize on the new situation, or are the obstacles to a deeper Chinese engagement too high?
Andrew Small is a senior transatlantic fellow with the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS), and an associate senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). His research focuses on Chinese policy in South Asia, U.S.–China relations, Europe–China relations, and broader developments in China’s foreign and economic policy. He previously worked as the director of the Foreign Policy Centre’s Beijing office; as a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and was an ESU scholar in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He is the author of “The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics”.