Michael Hughes: The Western exit from Afghanistan left the country’s neighbors to deal with the fallout from the Taliban’s grooming of and/or inability to contain transnational terrorist activities. Beijing, likely grasping it does not have the capabilities to reach the growing threat of Afghan-based terrorists targeting China, figures it can at least get something from the high-risk scenario.
However, China is unlikely to see much upside by expending cash and effort to exploit Afghanistan’s minerals, allegedly worth some $1 trillion, as many opponents of the U.S. exit have claimed. At the most, China will likely take pieces off the geopolitical chessboard for relatively EV metal-starved Western powers. At the least, they will rule out for the world the endeavors are academic due to security and cultural issues along with difficulties in doing business with the radical movement.