China frictions steer electric automakers away from rare earth magnets, page-109

Chinese mining companies have been there for many many years but couldn't get going because NATO's main mission was (gasp!) not quite what the PR departments advertised.

Think about it. If the US had really spent 20 years and 3 trillion dollars BUILDING Afghanistan, the whole country would look like Singapore or Paris today.. The real mission had nothing to do with women, children, or building anything. It was to keep the trouble pot boiling in the region, including sabotaging China's BRI.

Now that NATO has been, er, exited, the BRI will progress, albeit cautiously. Chinese, Russian, Afghan, Iranian, Tajik, Uzbek, Pakistani and other regional intelligence agencies are fully aware that there are 15-25000 CIA and ex-military Blackwater mercenaries purposefully left behind in the country to continue causing trouble.