What does China want in Afghanistan?

China has everything the West could wish for.

Not only when it comes to Afghanistan:

time, power and relationships without moral gaps.

Regardless of election cycles and approval ratings, Beijing's potentates can plan decades into the future.

And their cold, logical approach makes them independent of the obligation to adhere to and convey values ​​- unlike the USA.

“In the western province of Xinjiang, the Chinese regime forbids men to wear beards and has therefore sent them to labor camps; the Taliban punish men who do not grow beards, "explains Bernhard Zand, who has been reporting for SPIEGEL for decades from the Middle East and then from the Far East," the contradiction between these two worldviews could hardly be greater. Nevertheless, the Chinese are approaching the Taliban. "

Because China, as Bernhard explains in this episode of the "Eight Billion" podcast, is playing a much bigger geopolitical game in the region. His teammates: Pakistan, India and Iran. Or are they opponents? China has good relations at least with Pakistan and Iran. “It's a highly complicated game, a kind of geopolitical chess,” says Bernhard, “and you have to bear in mind: China has no real allies.” In the current podcast episode, he describes how the ice-cold world power approaches this game: