Beijing’s support for Taliban has created fissures on Chinese social media - ThePrint

The attack outside the Kabul airport has brought Taliban’s actions into sharp focus on Chinese social media.

Though the Chinese State media have relatively toned down their support for the Taliban, the narrative of doing business with a Taliban-led Afghanistan still dominates the news cycle.

A new page was recently set up for Afghan Taliban on Wikipedia’s Chinese equivalent Baike Baidu. Previously, a generic entry under the category “Taliban” had existed.

Global People Magazine – a sister concern of People’s Daily – put the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on the cover of its September edition.

“In recent days, the Taliban have also made continuous commitments to promote equal treatment of other religions, respect for women and no longer promote hatred of the West” says the cover story on Taliban.

But the Taliban’s recent actions have fomented discussion on Chinese social media.

Also read: India talks to Taliban leader Stanikzai for ‘early return’ of those stuck in Afghanistan

What’s trending on Weibo

The hashtag “Taliban says Afghan men and women will be educated in separate classes” became a topic of discussion on Weibo. “Afghan Taliban will end secularism taking Afghanistan back to the dark ages” said Zhang Yixua, a prominent Weibo user.

Despite the gory acts by the Taliban, some Chinese social media users have tried to defend the Afghan militia’s policy over segregation of men and women in schools. “If the textbooks are the same, I think this is more in line with...



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