China Claims to Offer Real Democracy in Wake of US Defeat in Afghanistan
The Taliban deputy head, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanifi, met the Chinese Ambassador to Kabul, Wang Yu, on Sept. 6 while the Chinese regime reiterated its support to the Taliban to form an “open, inclusive, and broadly representative government” after U.S. President Joe Biden declared the war over on Aug. 31.
Experts told The Epoch Times that the emerging situation in Afghanistan symbolizes a failure of democratic systems, which the CCP has used this as an opportunity to push forward its misleading narratives of democracy, governance, and peace.
“The fundamental change is that while the U.S. calls its withdrawal a success but the very Taliban takeover has significantly dented America’s image and a force of liberal order. While on the other end, this very aspect further endorses the authoritarian rule as also practiced in China,” Dr. Amrita Jash told The Epoch Times in an email. Jash is a China Analyst and author of the book “The Concept of Active Defence in China’s Military Strategy.”
As the United States was exiting from Afghanistan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grew bolder in its narratives of democracy.
In a press conference in Beijing on Aug. 20, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, attacked the American style of democracy and questioned the consequences of the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan.
In a direct pointer at the American system of democracy, Chunying said that democracy can’t be “predetermined or overstretched.”
“There is no set model of democracy. Democracy is not Coca-Cola, which, with the syrup produced by the United States, tastes the same across the world. For us, a key criterion of democracy is whether the country can meet people’s expectations, needs, and aspirations,” said Chunying.
Jash said the failure to “sustain a democratic system” in Afghanistan and the way things unfolded after Aug. 15 (the date the Taliban took control of Kabul), encourages China to push such narratives.
“This is well-witnessed in the growing bonhomie between China and Taliban, and Taliban seeking China’s support for the economic restoration of Afghanistan. This very change of dynamics brings into perspective that the fall of the democratic system has only given further credence to greater authoritarian systems,” said Jash.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a press conference in Kabul on Sept. 6 that the Taliban wants cooperation with China in the fields of economy, trade, and infrastructure development, including the construction of irrigation, electric power projects, and natural gas pipelines, according to Global Times, a Chinese state-run media outlet.
Jash said that China’s aspirations to become a global superpower are “automatically” supported by the current situation in Afghanistan that caused damage to America’s image.
Meanwhile, Chunying during the Aug. 20 press conference went as far as putting forward the idea of “Chinese democracy” and said Chinese people enjoy “people’s democracy while the United States is a money democracy.”
“The Chinese people enjoy substantial democracy while Americans have democracy only in form; China has a whole-process democracy while the United States has voting democracy that comes every four years,” said Chunying. He then raised questions about the consequences of the U.S. promotion of American democracy around the world.
“In which intervened country have the people enjoyed real peace, security, freedom, and democracy? Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan. Ganging up in the name of democracy, wantonly interfering in other country’s internal affairs, and even arbitrarily suppressing normal development of other countries and people’s legitimate right to better lives is more undemocratic than anything else. It is an autocracy, hegemony, and totalitarianism,” said Chunying.
‘Sickening Possibility’
Michael Johns, a co-founder of the U.S. Tea Party movement who was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Reagan Doctrine, under which the United States provided military support to the Afghan resistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, told The Epoch Times in an email that the way the Biden administration withdrew from Afghanistan gives the greatest cynics of democracy room to argue that democracy can’t work in countries like Afghanistan. The withdrawal hence gives legitimacy to the Taliban’s governance.
There are two possible scenarios to explain the way the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, according to Johns. who also served as a senior aide to 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean.
“The first demands accepting that a very ideological but competent military, diplomatic, and national security team comprising dozens of senior officials collectively made about ten consecutive major miscalculations, and I find that inconceivable,” said Johns.
“The second demands confronting an even more sickening possibility—that all of these decisions were executed fairly close to their actual plan, which included accepting and even embracing the collapse of the democratic Afghan government and the ascent of the Taliban combined with a conscious decision to leave behind vulnerable Americans, vulnerable Afghan allies from the war, and billions of dollars in advanced military equipment,” he said adding that this would be an impeachable offense.
However, he said if it was not for the “malicious meddling by Pakistan and about 50,000 armed Taliban intent on making sure” that democracy doesn’t work, a greater consensus existed in Afghanistan for a representative form of decentralized government.
“That is what interim president Amrullah Saleh is promising and offering, and I’m inclined to think Afghans will rally around him, not the Taliban. The constitution is well constructed but needs to be respected by foreign powers. If that’s done, then Saleh operates as an interim president, and elections are soon scheduled,” said Johns. However, the Taliban need to be disarmed, and that’s a difficult possibility, he said.
It would be wrong to analyze the situation and conclude that the Afghans do not wish for or are incapable of maintaining a representative government, said Johns.
He pointed at how men with automatic weapons were required to secure government buildings after Aug. 15. This underlined how they are not supported and are widely disliked by the Afghan public who like the rest of the world know that the Taliban are systematic human rights abusers.
“But the Afghans also largely know what the world isn’t really discussing: The Taliban have no operational or functional expertise in running a government and no sustainable financial capacity to do so even if they did have such expertise. So they are going to need foreign engagement, and that’s where this becomes immensely convenient for China’s Communist Party, whose Belt and Road Initiative seeks to block the U.S. out of key trade routes,” said Johns.
