Afghans accuse Chinese companies of 'looting' country's mines

| 2024-02-20

According to him, the second factor that caused China's interest in Afghanistan is Beijing's concern about the spread and development of insecurity to China and fueling separatism in China from Afghanistan, especially in Xinjiang province. He believes that China's economic cooperation with Afghanistan has a security and political flavor. China is looking for stability in Afghanistan, because instability in Afghanistan can cause the growth of extremism, because instability of Afghanistan can endanger China's position in the region. Is the type of regime in Kabul important for China? A basic question is, what is the ideal type of Chinese regime in Kabul? And does the change of the political system bring a change in China's approach towards this country or not? The Soviet Union tried the communist governing system in Afghanistan, but it was not successful, and the United States also brought the Islamic Republic system, which did not achieve the desired results and collapsed at the same time as the United States left. Mr. Zayeri believes that the type of government system in Afghanistan is not important for China, whether it is a system based on the will of the people or a completely authoritarian system, the only thing that is important for China is the stability of Afghanistan. According to him, the main motivation of China's presence in Afghanistan and interest in investing in Afghanistan is to limit the influence of the United States in the first step and to prevent instabilit

| 2024-02-20

Considering Beijing's increasing efforts to invest and stabilize Afghanistan, now the question is that, what made Kabul so important to Beijing? What China has done so far in the economic and diplomatic sector is considered the initial steps in the direction of influence in Afghanistan. Husain Mehrami, an economist, believes that China, as a newly emerging and decisive economic power, is seeking political concentration in the region and is trying to establish itself as a decisive power in the region, and its presence in Afghanistan is part of the program. According to Mr. Mehrami, the second reason why Afghanistan is important for China is China's rapid economic development and the country's need for raw material all over the world. Afghanistan, in China's neighborhood, has untouched natural resources and raw materials that are desirable to China. According to him, China's "Belt and Road" plan has also made Afghanistan one of China's desirable destinations. Afghanistan can be a link between China and other countries. Asadullah Zayeri, a university professor in Kabul, also believes that when a country like Afghanistan, which is of special importance from a geopolitical point of view, is placed next to a strategic power like China, it becomes more important. Afghanistan shares a 92-kilometer land border with China in a mountainous region that is of great importance to China. In his opinion, China's active and peaceful presence in Afghanistan also depends on two factors. First, t

| 2024-02-20

What do Chinese do in Kabul? This spring, the Taliban's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced the visit of officials and representatives of the Chinese company "Gochin" to Afghanistan and wrote that they have announced the investment of a capital of $10 billion to extract Afghanistan's lithium reserves in a meeting with Shahabuddin Delawar, acting minister of the ministry. In addition to investing in this sector, this company also promised to rebuild the strategic crossing of Salang within seven months and said that it will also dig another tunnel in Salang. Also, in exchange for lithium extraction, he promised Mr. Delaware the asphalting of the Kunar-Laghman road and the construction of a hydro-power plant in the area. In the winter of last year, the expression of China's interest in investing in the production of 500 megawatts of electricity from coal was published, and the representative of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, in a meeting with Mohammad Hanif Hamzah, executive chairman of Da Afghanistan Breshna company said that China has experience of producing electricity from coal in 11 countries. The Taliban Ministry of Industry and Trade has also said that China is interested in connecting the two countries through Wakhan Corridor or the Silk Road. With the realization of this project, both sides are looking forward to increase exchanges between Beijing and Kabul, a process that can play a vital role in increasing the income of the Afghan government. Meanwhile, Abdul S

| 2024-02-02

In a recent interview, the former President of the now-defunct Afghan republic, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, strongly condemned China's pledges to invest in Afghanistan. Mr. Ghani asserted that China's newly promised investments in Afghanistan are speculative, and the country has already signed investment agreements in many areas, but none of them have been implemented. In this regard, he mentioned China's promise to build 10,000 houses, mining contracts, etc., and said that the tools to implement these promises in China are weak and will cost Afghanistan a fortune. Chinese and Afghan Taliban authorities have not responded to Mr. Ghani's criticism. Last week, the Chinese President accepted the letter of credence of Bilal Karimi, the ambassador representing the Taliban regime. This move has sparked strong reactions from several Taliban opposition groups, including the United States, interpreting it as an implicit recognition of the Taliban despite being undeclared.

| 2024-01-21

Please do not be unjust when you are writing something. Afghans do not accuse the Chinese. The accusation is one thing and the truth is another. We do not accuse the Chinese, what we say is the truth. Although China shows itself as a superpower, it has never provided economic assistance to Afghans and Afghanistan. I remember well, it was in 2001 or early 2002, in an international conference where the countries of the world were declaring the amounts of their aids to Afghanistan, China said that it is ready to help Afghanistan with $1 million. What does one million dollars mean? And from a country with a huge economy, with vast facilities and excellent technology! The truth is that China has always tried and tries to use the countries of the world, especially the countries that are economically weak, for its own interests. What has been started in the region called BRI is only for China's own interests. They want to bring the region and the world under their new domination or colonization. Afghanistan's mines are one of the projects that China wants to acquire and use its raw materials for the benefit of its own country. Instead, it only gives Afghan politicians a few Afghani or a few dollars and convinces them to Let dirty China loot Afghanistan's mines. If China really wanted the good of Afghanistan, if the other countries of the world who show themselves as supporters of Afghans and Afghanistan, were honest in their words, they should train Afghan professional cadres so that

| 2023-10-02

Western media also plays a strange role. The United States, including NATO, spent the past 20 years in Afghanistan. At that time, I didn't hear anything from any Western media about the mining activities in Afghanistan. Now that the US has left Afghanistan, it is inevitable that the officials of Afghanistan will sign contracts with any country that they like regarding mining. The Americans and their allies stole a lot from Afghanistan. They did what they wanted to do. At that time, the Americans did not get permission from the Afghan government or the Afghans; they did everything independently. It is certain that, neither then nor now, there were any technical persons with the Afghans in the mining field. It would have been better if the Afghans had been given a hand during the presence of the Western world in Afghanistan. At that time, Westerners did not do anything in terms of extracting minerals. Considering their interests, they should have tried to find a piece of bread for the Afghans, but nothing happened. Now, the question is, why is the Western media angry about the participation of China and other countries in this field? This is at a time when all the aid from the West is blocked for the Afghans, and they are still trying for it. At this time, Afghan officials are forced to do something for the nation after taking over the country. Either China or Russia will certainly help Afghanistan in the region. If we tell the truth, the Westerners lost this chance. I say that

| 2023-09-30

We have the capacity to develop in the processing sector. Selling raw material is a temporary market and we should try to create suitable platforms for creating sustainable employment in Afghanistan by formulating long-term plans.

| 2023-09-30

With the reduction of international aid to Afghanistan, perhaps the best way to save the country's economy is to promote exports through other sectors, especially selling the minerals. Off course, if these materials are processed, they will have multiple times more value. The processing of minerals in the value chain of mineral industries is the foundation of high added value that can be useful for Afghanistan in a bad economic crisis. After processing, mineral stones have a high value, and this is something that should be looked at in a special way. Afghanistan is a poor country that has many mines, but the lack of necessary infrastructure has made the issue of processing the mines not get a proper place. Of course, the sanctions and some interference have caused investors to face problems. Selling raw materials prevents us from developing In the export of mineral products, we should try not to export these products in raw form. When minerals are exported in raw form, employment opportunities are reduced. This issue makes the added value of these materials decrease for us and they are easily available to other countries. Today, many countries that export processed mineral materials are the first importers of minerals, and we, who have large mineral resources in Afghanistan, should not miss this opportunity. Selling raw material prevents us from the path of development, many developed countries managed to solve their economic problems by creating added value from these raw ma

| 2023-09-29

The Chinese are very obnoxious people and do not value friendship. China wants to extract minerals from Afghanistan as soon as possible because they know that if the Americans get free, they will expel them from Afghanistan. Therefore, they poke into everything and try their best to extract minerals from Afghanistan in every possible way. Perhaps they have come to extract minerals and extend their influence. They also carry out certain intelligence work to save themselves from the future dangers of the United States. On the other hand, they want to know about any future power that comes to Afghanistan.

| 2023-09-28

During Karzai's era, a journalist asked Hamid Karzai in an interview, why don't you extract the mines? He replied that if we do this, what will the future generations of Afghanistan eat, and what will they do? He said if Afghanistan's mines are to be extracted, they should be extracted in a professional and standard way. During the time of Ashraf Ghani, the mines were handled carefully, and no one was allowed to extract them in a non-standard manner. But now, there is a lot of theft in the mines of Afghanistan. The current government has signed many contracts, and work is underway on hundreds of mines. But no one cares how China or any other country is extracting them. The future generation of Afghanistan will start begging.

| 2023-09-27

During the Republic era in Afghanistan, according to government estimates, Afghanistan has about 2.2 billion metric tons of iron ore, 1.3 billion metric tons of marble, about 30 million metric tons of copper, and 1.4 million metric tons of rare earth minerals as well as 2,700 kilograms of gold reserves. A total of 1,400 mineral reserves have been identified throughout the country. Minerals are clustered in three different areas. The first belt, which stretches from Herat in the southwest to Badakhshan in the northeast, contains iron ore, gold, copper, barite, coal, and precious stones. The second belt, extending from Helmand to Zabul and Ghazni provinces in the south, contains deposits of copper, gold, molybdenum, zinc, sulfur, and chromite. After all, the area around Kabul has copper deposits, including Aynak's world-class mine. It is at a time when Pakistan and China are looting Afghanistan's mines in a way as if it is their homeland, not the land of Afghans. Currently, China has the fourth most significant amount of coal in the world, with an amount of 149 billion 818 million 259 thousand tons, accounting for 13.1% of the world's coal, and the fifth place in India, which has 107 billion 726 million 551 thousand tons of coal. And it makes up 9.5% of the world's coal. Besides, Pakistan ranks 20th in the list of the world's 100 most coal-rich countries with 3 billion 377 million 477 thousand tons of coal, which makes up 0.3% of the world's coal. However, China is very shameles