Foreign Policy
•79% Informative
Bashir Noorzai , a close friend of the extremists’ supreme leader, has set up murky joint-venture deals with Chinese firms in Afghanistan that have won at least two minerals and petrochemical contracts.
The Taliban ’s multibillion-dollar heroin production and export enterprises have dominated the global market for decades .
“He has become like one of the warlords,” says researcher Javed Noorani .
Afghanistan is integral to the expansion of Beijing ’s Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI ) China has been sharing surveillance technology and equipment with the Taliban .
Beijing has poured in billions of dollars of BRI investment and loans that have bailed the country out of near-bankruptcy.
The move into the mining business could be a sign that Noorzai sees China as the future source of funding that will keep the Taliban in power.
Lynne O’Donnell is a columnist at Foreign Policy and an Australian journalist and author.
She was the Afghanistan bureau chief for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press between 2009 and 2017 .
The growing divide between Washington and the global south is playing out in Beijing ’s favor.
VR Score
79
Informative language
78
Neutral language
38
Article tone
formal
Language
English
Language complexity
67
Offensive language
possibly offensive
Hate speech
not hateful
Attention-grabbing headline
not detected
Known propaganda techniques
not detected
Time-value
short-lived
External references
6
Source diversity
5
Affiliate links
no affiliate links