On Saturday, the Chinese embassy in Kabul issued a statement urging its citizens in Afghanistan to follow Islamic practises, including a dress code and dining in public.
According to Global Times, the embassy also advised all Chinese people to stay away from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and other turbulent areas in an alert sent to all Chinese nationals.
Last month, during a meeting with a Taliban group in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed hope that Afghanistan may follow a moderate Islamist stance.
Suhail Shaheen, a spokesperson for the Taliban, said on Thursday that China is welcome to help reconstruct Afghanistan because it has played a positive role in encouraging peace and reconciliation in the nation.
In an interview with China’s CGTN television, Suhail Shaheen said, “China is a great country with a huge economy and capacity – I think they can play a very big part in the rebuilding, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of Afghanistan.”
Unlike Russia and the US, a rising China may be able to use the fact that it has not fought in Afghanistan to its advantage in dealing with the Taliban.
