A Neighbor of Neighbors: China’s Policy Toward Afghanistan, 1949-2024

This book explores China’s evolving role in Afghanistan--past, present, and future. Following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in August 2021 after two decades of intervention, China emerged as the most significant regional power capable of shaping the country’s future under Taliban rule. What are China’s objectives in post-withdrawal Afghanistan? How does it intend to project influence and manage security risks? To answer these questions, the book traces the historical evolution of China’s Afghanistan policy, offering both theoretical insight and empirical analysis. It highlights how Beijing’s approach is driven by the goals of amity, security, and influence. This timely study offers a nuanced understanding of China’s foreign policy and will be essential reading for scholars of Asian politics, geopolitics, and the emerging regional order in Central and South Asia.

Feng Zhang is an Associate Research Scholar in East Asian Studies at Yale University’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. A political scientist and interdisciplinary scholar, he specializes in China’s foreign policy, Asian international relations, and international relations theory. He is the author of Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East Asian History (Stanford, 2015). He coauthored two books with Richard Ned Lebow: Taming Sino-American Rivalry (Oxford, 2020) and Justice and International Order: East and West (Oxford, 2022). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in a range of disciplinary and area studies journals, and his commentary has been featured in outlets including Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He previously held teaching positions at Tsinghua University, Murdoch University, the Australian National University, and the South China University of Technology. In 2024, he was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center.