Editor’s note for Monday, August 16, 2021

My thoughts today:

Unless you’ve been in a cave with no wifi for the last 24 hours, you will already have read all kinds of hot takes on the Taliban’s easy walk into Kabul and the ensuing chaos at the city’s airport, so I won’t give you another one but instead point to our summary of how Afghanistan looks from Beijing.

Two angles that did not make it into our summary:

• Various Party voices are saying that Taiwan should learn from America’s lack of commitment: “Afghan abandonment [is] a lesson for Taiwan’s DPP” crows the Global Times (in Chinese here).
• “Many Chinese are confused over why Beijing is engaging with a group closely associated with terrorism and Xinjiang separatism,” says journalist Viola Zhou. “Weibo removed the trending hashtag ‘What kind of organization is the Taliban?’ after it triggered a wave of condemnation.”

Upcoming events:

• August 17: Beijing’s tech crackdown: Is it a good time to buy?
• August 19: Transforming your China skills to advance your career in the corporate world.
• August 25: A documentary film screening and panel discussion on the history and evolution of Afro-Chinese relations in America.

Our word of the day is open and inclusive Islamic government (开放包容的伊斯兰政府 kāifàng bāoróng de yīsīlán zhèngfǔ).

An admin note: We’ve optimized our website for mobile, but we’re going to be suspending our mobile app, so please do delete it from your phone and go directly to supchina.com for updates.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief