How an Afghan Drug Kingpin Became Beijing’s Man in Kabul

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.