Foreign Policy: Taliban Unable to Protect Chinese Workers from Local Hostilities

Sarah Goodkind, a researcher at the US-based Stimson Center, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine that the Taliban administration is unable to protect Chinese workers from local hostilities in Afghanistan.

Goodkind noted that since the Taliban takeover in 2021, China has dominated Afghanistan's mining sector, particularly gold extraction along the Afghan-Tajik border, turning these areas into deadly zones for Chinese workers. Chinese nationals have increasingly been targeted by unidentified armed groups in Afghanistan and on the Afghan-Tajik border. Recently, five Chinese workers were killed in a cross-border attack on the Tajik-Afghan border.

Chinese mining has caused local dissatisfaction, with workers caught between anti-Taliban sentiments and border tensions. Due to record-high gold prices, Chinese nationals have rushed to northern Afghanistan for extraction activities, some legal with support from the Chinese government and Taliban leadership, others informal deals approved by local Taliban leaders. Clashes have occurred between locals and gold mining companies in Badakhshan city. Border incidents between Tajik forces and the Taliban have arisen as Chinese mining activities altered river courses, threatening national border demarcations.

Goodkind stated that unidentified armed groups pose an immediate threat to Chinese citizens amid their growing presence. While Beijing has urged its citizens and companies to leave, illegal miners may remain, leading to further security incidents. Neither the Taliban nor Tajikistan has prevented these attacks despite promises of new efforts.

According to statistics cited in the Foreign Policy analysis, from November 2024, at least seven incidents targeted Chinese nationals in the Afghan-Tajik border region, killing at least nine and wounding at least 10, with about 80% linked to gold mining. Specific events include a January 2025 attack in Takhar province on a Chinese gold miner and late November cross-border assaults, including a drone explosive and gunfire, killing five Chinese. Chinese embassies in Afghanistan and Tajikistan issued multiple evacuation warnings, the latest after early January 2026 clashes in Takhar where protesters burned mining equipment.

Takhar hosts China's largest investment in Afghanistan after Mes Aynak copper and Amu Darya oil, valued at $310-350 million. Taliban security relies on these projects, receiving shares such as 56% of Takhar profits, but local resentment over rights granted to China without community involvement makes Chinese workers easy targets.