China denies links with Taliban

BEIJING, SEPT. 16. China has denied U.S. media reports claiming that Beijing has maintained close diplomatic and other ties with the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the official Xinhua news agency said today.

Reports in some U.S. newspapers of close links between China and the Taliban were ``at serious variance with the facts'', the agency quoted the Ministry spokesperson, Mr. Zhu Bangzao, as saying.

``China shut down its embassy in Afghanistan in 1993 ... (and) has never sent resident personnel there since then,'' he said, adding that ``China has no selfish interests on the Afghan issue.

What it has done is mainly to persuade different factions in Afghanistan to make peace, and we will never interfere in internal affairs.''

China has no formal links with the Taliban and the anti-Taliban alliance has ``maintained normal operation'' of the Beijing Embassy in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power.

Reports that China helped the Taliban in the construction of a dam and a telephone network, and had signed an agreement on economic and technical assistance, were ``absurd'', he said.

- DPA

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