Taliban’s Oil Deal Divorce With China Tests Beijing’s Checkbook Diplomacy: Analysts

Kabul scrapped a $540 million oil pact after China failed to invest, spotlighting the limits of Beijing’s big-money promises in unstable Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's acting deputy prime minister, Abdul Ghani Baradar, speaks during the inauguration ceremony of a Mes Aynak copper deposit mining project, in Shast Bandari area of Mohammad Agha district at Logar province, Afghanistan, on July 24, 2024. Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has torn up the only major resource contract it has signed since retaking power in 2021, accusing its Chinese partner of failing to invest the money, drill the oil wells, or hire the workers it pledged.