Beijing’s Anti-US Remark Backfires as Spokeswoman Blames US for Terrorist Attacks in Afghanistan

A worker waters a lawn near an Afghan national flag flying at half-mast in Kabul on May 11, 2021 during a national day of mourning announced by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to condemn the recent terrorist attacks. Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images

A recent bombing in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed 85 people and injured 147. It is suspected that the Taliban was behind the attack. However, instead of condemning the terrorists, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the United States, claiming that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is causing successive violent attacks in Afghanistan.

On the afternoon of May 8, a bomb exploded near a girls’ school in Dasht-e-Barchi, a major Shiite community in Kabul, and two more bombs exploded when students rushed out in panic. It was the worst among the recent string of deadly bombings in Kabul in months, targeting schoolgirls between 11 and 15 years old.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the Taliban terrorist group condemned the school bombings on Twitter, accusing ISIS terrorists of being behind it. According to the Wall Street Journal, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, however, blamed the Taliban, saying that “by intensifying their illegitimate war and violence, showed that they have no interest in a peaceful solution to the current crisis.”

On the same day as the school bombing, the U.S. Department of State condemned the attack, calling “for an immediate end to violence and the senseless targeting of innocent civilians.”

President Joe Biden announced on April 14 that the U.S. military will begin to withdraw from Afghanistan on May 1 and complete its withdrawal before Sept. 11, to focus on countering the China threat in the Indo-Pacific region.

However, in a Twitter post on May 1, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid wrote, “As withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces.”

May 1 is the U.S. troop withdrawal deadline that was negotiated under President Donald Trump.

Taliban’s Secret and Open Interactions with Beijing

On June 20, 2019, China’s foreign affairs spokesperson Lu Kang revealed that a Taliban delegation had met with China’s special representative for Afghanistan in Beijing to discuss the group’s peace talks with the United States. It was the first time Chinese authorities openly admitted the Taliban’s visit to China.

According to a report by Tencent.com on July 25, 2019, the Taliban sent a delegation to visit China in 2014; Abbas Stanakzai, Director of the Taliban Political Office in Qatar, visited China in July 2016; and from 2017 to 2018, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials met with Taliban members several times.

The report cited Zhang Jinping, a professor of Law and Political Science from the Anti-Terrorism Research Institute of Northwest University, who said, “The Taliban is the main political and armed force in Afghanistan. The long-term turbulence and setbacks in the Afghan peace process indicate that it is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan if the Taliban is excluded from the process.”

Lu, the spokesperson who announced the Taliban’s official visit, concluded that the two sides had positive and beneficial exchanges, and they would continue the partnership to find a solution for Afghanistan’s political problems and to crack down on terrorism, according to the Tencent report.