Afghanistan's new Wakhan road has reached the Chinese frontier, but the border remains closed
Afghanistan's Taliban government has opened a road through the Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province to the Chinese frontier, but the road ends at a closed border. At an altitude of nearly 4,900 metres, at the Wakhjir Pass, Afghanistan ends and China begins; snow closes the pass for at least five months of the year, and people cross it only sporadically in the months when it is passable. There is no official border crossing there.
On 4 October, the Taliban-led government celebrated the opening of the road leading to the frontier, but crucially not crossing it. Afghanistan's Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said the road through the Wakhan Corridor had been built in two phases for 365 million afghanis ($5.5m). It is a basic, unpaved track covered with gravel. On the other side of the border there is no Chinese customs facility, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not commented on the opening. There is no indication of when Beijing might open it to commercial traffic.
The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow stretch of land extending for about 350 kilometres (220 miles). It lies between Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south, but is entirely within Afghan territory, connecting it with China. Its unusual shape was determined by the competition between Britain and Russia in the 19th century. An 1895 agreement delineated Afghanistan's northern boundary with Russian territories and left Wakhan under Kabul's control to separate Russian-controlled land from British India. China was not a party to that conflict, and Kabul and Beijing did not settle their border until 1963.
Serious discussion of a road through Wakhan began in June 2009, in talks between the Afghan and Chinese governments. The project went no further than preliminary studies at the time, with the corridor's rugged terrain cited as a major obstacle. The Chinese press at the time also noted security concerns, particularly that Uighur fighters could use the corridor as an entry point into China.
The project was then frozen until 2019, when Afghanistan began building a road in Wakhan, according to former Afghan ambassador to China Javid Qaem. Sixty kilometres (37 miles) were completed, Qaem said, 'but the sudden change of government in Afghanistan in August 2021 led to the plan being postponed,' a reference to the Taliban takeover. Former acting defence minister Shah Mahmoud Miakhel, who served in 2021, said the presence of United States and foreign forces and the security situation prevented implementation, and that Beijing considered those circumstances to be limiting the corridor's prospects.
According to Qaem, the Taliban resumed construction of the Wakhan road in September 2023, seeking financial support from China to build the future trade route, but China has not yet agreed to open its border because of security threats. In January 2024, the Taliban announced the road had reached the Chinese border. In March 2025, the rural development ministry signed a contract with local companies for a second, 71-kilometre (44-mile) phase. The authorities say the project was funded from Afghan government resources, with no indication of Chinese funding.
In August 2025, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Kabul, his second visit since the Taliban returned to power and the most senior visit by a Chinese official since the takeover. In his meeting with Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, Wang said China 'supports the early resumption of bilateral patrols in the Wakhan Corridor to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.' He also called on Kabul to crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a Uighur separatist group.
Unlike Afghanistan, China does not view the Wakhan Corridor primarily as an economic project, but as a highly sensitive security issue. Beijing's priorities in Afghanistan are protecting its western border, preventing armed groups from entering Xinjiang, and safeguarding its investments in natural resources as well as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. An Afghan government source, who requested anonymity, said China does not oppose opening its border through Wakhan, but links implementation to effective security guarantees, and said the Taliban had demonstrated their ability to maintain security and secure the border.
The question of Xinjiang is therefore China's apparent priority on Wakhan. A 2022 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the 'arbitrary detention of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang'; China rejected the findings as part of a Western campaign against it. Beijing continues to proceed cautiously on Afghanistan, and major Chinese investments have stalled. In June 2025, the Taliban cancelled an oil exploration contract in the Amu Darya Basin with a Chinese company, saying it had failed to fulfil its obligations, and in May this year Afghanistan's mining minister complained to the Chinese ambassador about delays in the Mes Aynak copper mine project, which has yet to begin production.
China shares land borders with 14 countries and maintains extensive trade relations with most of its neighbours. But Afghanistan, alongside Bhutan, remains one of the only countries bordering China yet to benefit from a direct overland crossing for trade. Kabul wants Wakhan to provide a route not controlled by Islamabad. Afghanistan is landlocked, and its routes to the sea run through Pakistan and Iran; over the past year, both routes have been all but closed at the same time.
Mohammad Ismail Ghaznawi, who was governor of Badakhshan before becoming deputy minister of public works for road maintenance in August, said the Wakhan road project was 'part of the government's plan to diversify trade outlets and reduce dependence on Pakistani border crossings,' and referenced fighting between Afghan and Pakistani forces that has been ongoing this year. Ghaznawi added that the US-Israel war on Iran also directly affects Afghan trade, making alternative routes a priority. In his words, the corridor should not be viewed simply as a crossing connecting Afghanistan and China, but as a strategic corridor that could link South Asia and Central Asia and strengthen regional trade and economic integration.
Even as the Afghan side lauds the Wakhan road as an alternative to dependence on Pakistan, China is not acting as though it is looking for an alternative. Beijing continues to call for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to be extended into Afghanistan and has not opened the Wakhjir Pass. A gravel road closed by snow for months cannot replace a major crossing such as Torkham, through which a significant share of Afghanistan's trade with Pakistan used to pass. Miakhel, the former defence minister, also linked recent security tensions in Badakhshan to the corridor project, saying there were 'attempts to obstruct its completion.'
