The very thought of China playing a positive role in Afghanistan, through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is driving some members of the U.S. political and financial establishment off the deep end. An Aug. 17 article in Forbes and another by CNBC on the same date, conjure up scenarios of China greedily exploiting Afghanistan’s 1.4 million tons of rare-earth minerals, to the detriment of the West, while engaging the country in several key BRI infrastructure projects, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Forbes's panicked author Ariel Cohen, warns that the U.S.’s loss of credibility and “geostrategic leverage” after its 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan and “precipitous” departure, now means that “insidious actors,” including Russia and China, as well as North Korea and Iran, can cause problems in the region without U.S. interference. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/08/17/afghanistan-natural-resources-for-grabs-after-the-us-retreats-china-rises/?sh=7cd3f66b46c2)
With the rise of the Taliban, Cohen laments, “the energy infrastructure and natural resources of the region are now more in jeopardy than ever since 2001,” because China is preparing to move in with massive investments. In fact, he says, Russia and China are eying “lucrative development projects that boost their regional ambitions.” The “big prize” in Afghanistan is its 1.4 million tons of rare-earth elements (REE), which are crucial for the production of renewable energy technology. “This makes Afghanistan a prime target of investment for China, the current king of global REE supply chains. America needs rare earths and China controls 90% of processing capacity.” CNBC quotes Shamaila Khan, a director of emerging market debt at AllianceBernstein, who told the network’s Squawk Box Asia that the possibility that Afghanistan’s minerals could be exploited by the Chinese is a “very dangerous proposition for the world.”
