onsdag 18. august 2021

Interview: Taliban Sharing Info with China ‘Poses a Danger for Uyghurs’

The situation in Afghanistan is certainly critical for Uyghurs. The Taliban's engagement with China expands back into the late 1990s, when they first began engagement. It continued this engagement with China's long-running underground diplomacy with the Taliban, but become much more public-facing. The Chinese government essentially had assumed that the Taliban will have some sort of governing role in Afghanistan, so they hedged their bets in a way that they can cooperate with them.

This poses a danger for Uyghurs. Historically, the Taliban have tried to move Uyghur populations in Afghanistan to monitor them. There are also cases of the Taliban deporting Uyghurs from the regions that they've controlled in Afghanistan. Increasingly, there are talks between the Chinese side and the Taliban representatives.