In the course of hectoring the United States for its “bungled and embarrassing withdraw from Afghanistan” on Thursday, China’s state-run Global Times admitted Beijing has a rapacious interest in Afghanistan’s vast rare-earths mineral resources and snarled it was none of America’s business if China makes deals with the Taliban to get what it wants.
The Global Times accused the U.S. of profiteering from Afghanistan for the past twenty years, without offering any theories on where all the plunder might have gone, and claimed America is only worried about China going after those mineral resources because the U.S. is jealous:
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/08/19/china-taliban-afghanistans-minerals/------------
And since China shares some border with Afghanistan, they don't need to project their military half way around the world, nor take over the whole country.
They will protect the areas they need, and of the Taliban screw with them, China will exterminate them. There will be no ROE like there was with the U.S.
