Exclusive: Taliban to join China's Belt and Road forum, elevating ties
www.reuters.com
The Taliban will attend China's Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

The Taliban will attend China’s Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing’s growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government.

Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focussed on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend.

The forum in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade.

    • TWeaKEnglish
      417·
      1 year ago

      Absolutely. The Taliban are terrible for women’s rights. This is the most obvious and biggest negative. Although, they’ve not been as bad as Iran recently - Western media has been itching to find examples of the Taliban really cracking down and assaulting women but haven’t found much if anything. While we could assume that they have been doing it and perhaps even probably be correct, that’s still just an assumption.

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
        102·
        1 year ago

        Although, they’ve not been as bad as Iran recently

        There are so many levels of ‘what the fuck’ to this, not least the lack of understanding of the comparative horror of Iran and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

        • TWeaKEnglish
          33·
          1 year ago

          Care to actually explain what you mean?

          • PugJesus@kbin.social
            52·
            1 year ago

            1. Iran is far better on women’s rights than Afgahnistan under the Taliban. And that’s NOT praise for Iran.

            2. Afghanistan has been quite prominent in its display of horrors against women’s rights, it’s just that the West has moved on since the fall of the non-Taliban Afghan government.

            3. The whole argument you’re putting forward is mega-fucked and inaccurate at its base, and the idea that the Taliban are some populist uprising is fucking absurd to anyone who knows anything about Afghanistan.

            • TWeaKEnglish
              31·
              1 year ago
              1. Can you please provide some sources? I was specifically referring to Iranian police beating women to death or locking them away for social media posts, and all the various stories like that. Maybe Afghanistan is doing similar or worse, but I need to see evidence.
              2. Again, sources? With particular reference to the “horrific” parts.
              3. I’m not saying the Taliban was a populist uprising, I’m saying the people saw the Taliban as the better option and did not resist when they took over. As a result, war has ended in the country. That doesn’t mean everything is rosy now, but it is objectively better than before in that regard - the alternative would have been ongoing conflict in the form of a civil war.

              I’m definitely open to changing my position, but I need something more than just a back and forth in comments.

        • TWeaKEnglish
          78·
          1 year ago

          Weird that the image isn’t loading for me in situ. Edit: It came up after a few refreshes. /e Anyway.

          Got any context? Date? An article to go with it?

            • TWeaKEnglish
              11·
              1 year ago

              Thanks. That’s rubbish then, not surprising of course but it’s pretty much the worst way things could go.

              Is there anything you can tell me about the photo above?