China blasts US over Afghanistan pullout, describes ‘effective’ talks with Taliban

BEIJING — China says it has established an “open and effective communication and consultation with the Afghan Taliban,” following a meeting between representatives of the group and Beijing’s ambassador to Kabul.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details about the Tuesday meeting between the deputy head of the Taliban’s political office, Abdul Salam Hanafi and Ambassador Wang Yu.

But he said China considered Kabul to be an “important platform and channel for both sides to discuss important matters of all kinds.”

China hosted a delegation led by senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar for talks last month, prior to the group’s lightning sweep to power in Kabul.

China has kept its embassy in the city open and says it has no plans for a wholesale evacuation of its citizens in Afghanistan, while relentlessly criticizing the U.S. over the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport.

“We have always respected Afghanistan’s sovereign independence and territorial integrity, pursued a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and adhered to a policy of friendship toward the entire Afghan people,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing Wednesday in Beijing.

“China respects the Afghan people’s independent decision on their own future and destiny, supports the implementation of the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned principle, and stands ready to continue to develop good-neighborly relations of friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan and play a constructive role in the peace and reconstruction of the country,” Wang said.

China has used the chaotic U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan as a propaganda tool in an effort to create a wedge between America and Taiwan.

On Aug. 16, in a Tweet the day after the fall of Kabul, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a Chinese state news agency, said the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was an ill omen for Taiwan.

“After the fall of the Kabul regime, the Taiwan authorities must be trembling,” Hu Xijin tweeted. “Don’t look forward to the US to protect them.”

The next day, Chinese fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft and combat ships conducted assault drills near Taiwan with the People’s Liberation Army saying the exercise was necessary to safeguard China’s sovereignty.

China has stepped up military exercises around self-ruled Taiwan, which it considers its own territory.