The following is from Sekihei's regular column in the Sankei Shimbun on August 5.
The Depths of the Taliban Meeting with Foreign Minister Wang
As previously reported in this paper, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with senior members of the Afghan fundamentalist Taliban in Tianjin on July 28.
In the history of Chinese diplomacy since the days of Deng Xiaoping, there has never been such an unusual and bizarre meeting.
As a foreign minister, Mr. Wang's appropriate counterpart for such a meeting would usually be the chief diplomat of the respective country's government.
For Mr. Wang to meet not with a representative of the Afghan government but with a senior official of one of its forces is unusual.
Holding a meeting with an opponent of the Afghan government while having official diplomatic relations with it is a violent interference in the other country's internal affairs and may damage interstate ties with Afghanistan.
More importantly, the Taliban is an organization that is suspected to be engaged in terrorist activities.
When a bombing occurred in Kabul in May this year that killed 58 people, Afghan President Ghani was the first to condemn it as "terrorism by the Taliban.
From this point of view, the meeting between Foreign Minister Wang and the Taliban leaders is indeed a bizarre one.
The meeting will inevitably further worsen China's international image.
Why did China, under severe criticism from the international community for its domestic suppression of human rights, take the foolish step of being accused of being in league with a terrorist organization?
The key to unraveling the Chinese government's intentions is the time and place of the meeting.
Two days before the meeting between Foreign Minister Wang and the Taliban leader took place, Wang had a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Sherman at the exact location in Tianjin.
Judging from the "exquisite" timing of the meeting, we can understand that the Chinese side intentionally invited the Taliban leaders to Tianjin with a strong awareness of the US-China meeting held two days earlier. It was a kind of demonstration the U.S. In other words, China is playing games with the U.S.
In other words, China even used the "forbidden move" of approaching the Taliban, a terrorist organization, to gain the upper hand in its game with the U.S.
What on earth is the Chinese government trying to win from the U.S. by going this far?
At the meeting between the U.S. and China held on the 26th, Foreign Minister Wang brought up China's "three basic demands" from the beginning and firmly pressed the U.S. side to accept them.
First of all, he said, "We must not challenge or attempt to overthrow the path and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
In other words, he asked the U.S. government not to attempt to overthrow the "socialist system" of the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.
Incidentally, the second and third of the "three basic demands" made by Wang were "not to interfere in internal affairs" and "not to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity," respectively.
In the end, it can be seen that for the Chinese government, rather than "sovereignty" or "territory," the maintenance and preservation of the Communist Party-controlled political system is its most significant concern.
And it is precisely from this perspective that we can see the deeper reason why the Chinese government set up the meeting with the Taliban leaders immediately after the US-China talks.
In other words, the Xi Jinping administration sent a clear message to the United States with this risky move.
That is, "If the U.S. government attempts to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party, we will fight it tooth and nail, even if it means joining forces with terrorist organizations.
I don't think this is just a threat.
It is what they tend to do.
It is because it has been the consistent practice of the Chinese Communist regime to go to any length to protect its one-party dictatorship.
It is precisely where the danger of China lies.
