By Kai Pflug
Not everyone knows that Afghanistan and China have a direct border. Admittedly, it is only about 92 km long and only connects the two countries via a long and narrow part of Aafghanistan, the Wakhan corridor. Also, there is no road crossing the Wakhjir Pass, though this pass used to be part of the historic silk road.
(Bonus information for use in trivia quizzes: the border between the two countries is the location with the biggest time difference anywhere in the world – it is 3.5 hours as China only has one time zone which is adapted to Beijing conditions, which of course is far further East).
In the past few months, China and Afghanistan have been getting closer. According to Reuters, a high-ranking Taliban official (specifically, the acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi) is to attend China’s Belt and Road Forum in October 2023, indicating that ties between the two countries are strengthening even though the Taliban government has not been officially recognized by China.
Both countries have quite something to gain from strengthened ties. Afghanistan is looking for investors in areas such as mining and infrastructure while China is interested in Afghanistan’s mineral resources. This includes a huge copper mine in which China had already shown an interest under the previous Afghan government.
In May 2023, Chinese, Pakistani and Taliban officials stated their objective to have Afghanistan included in China’s Belt and Road initiative and to extend the Pakistan Economic Corridor across the border to Afghanistan.
Coming back to the beginning of this post, this may even mean that eventually a road will be built through the Wakhan corridor to provide a direct road connection between China and Afghanistan.
Illustration by Owennson under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Originally posted 2024-03-16 14:29:18.
