FP: On paper, at least, Beijing’s latest deal with the Taliban looks impressive: $10 billion for access to lithium deposits, creating 120,000 direct jobs, plus some infrastructure building and repairs thrown in for good measure. But rather than underpinning hope for economic revival, this contract is likely to join other Chinese ventures in Afghanistan that have been signed with great fanfare—for the republic and extremists alike—only to go out with a whimper rather than a bang. China famously signed a $3 billion deal to develop Afghanistan’s largest copper deposit, not far from Kabul, and then unceremoniously decamped once the shooting started. Click here to read more (external link).