China does not officially recognize the Afghan government. However, an ambassador now represents this regime in Beijing, rather than a simple chargé d'affaires, as was previously the case. On December 1, Assadullah Bilal Karimi presented his credentials to Hong Lei, director general of Protocol at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On September 13, Zhao Xing, appointed as China's new ambassador to Kabul, was received with great ceremony at the presidential palace. On this occasion, he reviewed a guard of honor.

After the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021, most countries replaced their ambassadors with a simple chargé d'affaires, a position that does not require credentials to be presented to the incumbent government and, therefore, does not imply recognition of the regime. Since August 2021, while a few ambassadors remained in their positions, no country, until China, had appointed a new ambassador to Kabul.

Since the Taliban's return to power, China has consistently sought to maintain an open channel of communication with Afghanistan, with which it shares a 47-mile border. In late September, around a hundred Afghan athletes participated in the Asian Games held in Hangzhou. On October 5, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Afghan counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaqi, on the sidelines of the third China-Tibet Trans-Himalaya Forum held in Tibet.

"China respects the independent choices made by the Afghan people... never interfered in Afghanistan's internal affairs, never seeks self-interests or the so-called spheres of influence in Afghanistan," a Chinese press release stated. On October 19, the Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, attended the third "Belt and Road" International Forum in Beijing, chaired by Xi Jinping. Less than a month later, Yue Xiaoyong, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's special envoy for Afghanistan, took part in a "workshop" in China to train "young diplomats" from three countries: China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the Chinese daily Global Times, 24 Afghan "cultural experts" spent three weeks in China as part of a collaboration on cultural heritage, which is ironic given that both the Taliban and the Chinese Communists during the Cultural Revolution were adept at destroying their own cultural heritage.

Furthermore, following the earthquake that struck northwest Afghanistan on October 7, which led to approximately 1,500 deaths according to the UN, China announced that it had sent €4 million worth of humanitarian aid. In addition to this, there were approximately €15,000 donated by Chinese residents in Afghanistan and €26,000 contributed by the Chinese mining company MCC-JCL Aynak Minerals. This aid might not be entirely altruistic. Since 2008, MCC has held the mining rights for the Aynak copper mine, located approximately 37 miles south of Kabul and believed to be the second-largest copper deposit in the world.

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