Bold prediction….China whips out their 21st century playbook and offers to build infrastructure in Afghanistan for the new Taliban government in exchange for mineral rights they need to keep their machine running. We have seen this before. Taliban becomes a Chinese proxy. China can comfortably do business with the Taliban as they have similar thoughts on human rights and let’s be honest, who is going to stop them? Eventually, the Taliban will become subservient to the Chinese as they could not fight them off and they know that. China does not need an invasion, just precious metals but their sphere of influence will grow tremendously in the Middle East (along with much of central Africa).
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/as-us-exits-afghanistan-china-eyes-1-trillion-in-minerals
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/as-us-exits-afghanistan-china-eyes-1-trillion-in-minerals