The first thing you see walking out of Kabul’s airport is a billboard advertising Chinatown, which, if you visit, turns out to be a plain, off-white trio of 10-story towers in the Afghan capital’s Taimani district. On the ground floor are shops selling Chinese products, including lights, office furniture, fans, electric bicycles, kitchen equipment, garden tools, pipe fittings, solar panels, toiletries, clothes, decorations and Clean Laundry detergent, which promises “disintegration of the stain.” Most visitors’ first stop is the office of Yu Minghui, the 51-year-old entrepreneur who started Chinatown in 2019 and who doubles as chairman of the China-Afghanistan Trade Committee, a semiofficial liaison office for Yu’s passion project: bringing Chinese merchants to Afghanistan. The office helps them obtain visas, navigate the market and make connections. Those who like their chances can join Chinatown or rent space in Yu’s newest undertaking, a sprawling 350-acre, $216-million industrial park on Kabul’s northeastern edge — the first infrastructure project signed between a Chinese company and the Taliban government. “They want to help foreigners invest here,” Yu said of Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamic rulers. “The government is now supporting us.” Behind his efforts is at least the tacit support of another government: his own. With the West focused on Ukraine and the U.S. refusing to deal with a Taliban-led state, China sees an opportunity to extend its influence in its backyard, using commercial ties to help forge a stable regional order and demonstrate that its brand of economic diplomacy — buttressed by a steadfast policy of noninterference in domestic affairs — can achieve success where Washington’s 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan could not. The efforts are nothing like the United States’ gargantuan nation-building campaign. Instead, Beijing’s goal is to neutralize the dangers from what has long been a problematic neighbor, while pursuing wider policies such as...

Afghanistan is facing a governance crisis. The ruling group’s stringent measures and inflexibility have caused public dismay. While the de facto authority implores the world for recognition, they can not have it if the people at home are unhappy and unsatisfied. People’s welfare and local and national reforms should be the priority. Resolving issues with the country fellows is a much better and more respectful procedure to proceed forward – making way for domestic reforms – than begging the international community for legitimacy and recognition. Looking back at the past, one can not afford to commit violence as pressure for reforms as it would not lead to success. There is a need to be more serious and focus on political settlement rather than repeating the pungent past. In addition to the obligatory status of education in the charter of the United Nations and other global organizations, education is considered compulsory for everyone in Islam. Unfortunately, middle and high school female students in Afghanistan are banned from attending schools for more than 400 days. This petrifying act has severely damaged the global image of the Taliban and Afghanistan. Freedom of expression is a vital human right. Islam advocates and appreciates the freedom of expression – given that it is not violating moral and spiritual redlines. The suppression of freedom of expression is a misinterpretation of Islamic values by the kitchen cabinet members of the monarch. On the other hand, it is ironic that though such laws exist in certain Muslim societies, racial discrimination and blasphemy have become the most dangerous and provocative weapon under the title of freedom of expression. Such criminalization is considered to be the root cause of radicalism and fundamentalism. Taking into account the current trend of information technology developments, it looks nearly impossible for a backward country to impose censorship and ban on media. Therefore, in compliance with the principles of...

The world is currently embroiled in an intense debate over the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and the China-led Global Security Initiative (GSI). The much-anticipated meeting between  US President Joe Biden and the Chinese strongman Xi Jinping at the Indonesian resort Bali (November 14) also took place in the context of these two tit-for-tat initiatives and provided a footnote to the simmering tensions over various issues between the two countries. “We’re going to compete vigorously. But I’m not looking for conflict, I’m looking to manage this competition responsibly,” Biden said after his talks with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit. In a post-meeting statement, Xi called Taiwan the “first red line” that must not be crossed in US-China relations. Biden , on his part, said he sought to assure President Xi that U.S. policy on Taiwan, which has for decades been to support both Beijing’s ‘One China’ stance and Taiwan’s military, had not changed. This reiteration by both signaled a visible break from the hostile rhetoric that has muddied their bilateral relations  since Biden assumed Presidency. House President Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan in August, too, had fueled tensions and triggered unusual rage in Beijing. The latest exchange between the two leaders offers yet another opportunity to dissect the US-led Indo-Pacific Policy (IPS) and the Chinese response to it – the Global Security Initiative (GSI). The IPS envisioned by the US directly confronts China and aims  to curtail China’s economic and military influence in the region. Pakistan very much lies in the area covered by the Indo-Pacific strategy, given her strategic partnership with China, and can neither remain oblivious to the developments, nor remain unaffected. Pakistan, therefore, has to grasp the essentials of this new tussle between the leading powers of the world and must leverage its elements of national power to advance its for advancing its own national interests. A free and...