Behind China's Remarkable Shift On Taliban After US Exit

China's reasons have as much to do with its own rise as a global power as the Taliban's surprisingly swift march on Afghanistan capital Kabul.

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan the first time in 1996, China refused to recognize their rule and left its embassy shut for years. This time around, Beijing has been among the first to embrace the Islamist terrorists next door. China's remarkable shift was on display little more than two weeks ago, when Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed a Taliban delegation to the northern port of Tianjin as the group made gains against the administration of President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country on Sunday. Wang's endorsement of the Taliban's "important role" in governing Afghanistan provided a crucial boost of legitimacy for an organization that has long been a global pariah due to its support of terrorism and the repression of women. China's reasons have as much to do with its own rise as a global power as the Taliban's surprisingly swift march on the Afghan capital. China today commands an economy worth $14.7 trillion -- more than 17 times its size in 1996 -- and a massive trade-and-infrastructure initiative that stretches across the Eurasian landmass. Beijing's fears about Islamist extremism among its own Uyghur minority have also deepened in recent years, leading it to build a vast police state adjacent to Afghanistan. Moreover, an increasingly intense rivalry with the US has prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to seize any opportunity to push back against Washington's dominance and push American forces away from his borders.