The same note indicated that Hanafi affirmed during a telephone conversation with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Jianghao that Jemaah Islamiyah is ready “to further develop friendly relations with China.”
He told Wu Hanafi that China “always respects the sovereignty and independence” of Afghanistan, where the people “now have their own destiny in their own hands.”
In addition to ensuring the security of Chinese citizens and Chinese institutions in the Central Asian country, Hanafi described China as “a friendly country that Afghanistan can trust.”
In late July, before the Taliban took control of Kabul, a delegation of the group’s representatives in China met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who described the Taliban as a “decisive military and political force” in Afghanistan.
After the withdrawal of US forces, Chinese authorities expressed hope that the Taliban would form an “Islamic but open and inclusive” government and “play a constructive role” in the country.
Beijing described the departure of US forces as a “new starting point” for Afghanistan.
China and Afghanistan share some 60 kilometers of border in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, one of the most volatile regions of the Asian country, which has been marked by violent ethnic clashes in recent decades between the Muslim ethnic minority Uyghurs and the Han ethnic group, the country’s ethnic majority. China.
