Chen Song(right), deputy director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, meets with Afghan Embassy Chargé d'affaires in Beijing Sayed Mohiuddin Sadat on June 22. Screenshot from the official WeChat account of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

Chen Song, deputy director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, met with Afghan Embassy Chargé d'affaires in Beijing Sayed Mohiuddin Sadat on Wednesday, with Sadat thanking China for the sincere sympathy over the deadly earthquake.

Global Times has learned that Sadat serves as the Charge d'affaires of the Afghan Taliban government's embassy in China, and this is the first time that the Chinese Foreign Ministry publicly released information about meeting with Sadat.

Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of Research Center for the Belt and Road and director of Center for Afghanistan Studies, Lanzhou University, told the Global Time on Thursday that at a time when the Afghan Taliban government is plagued by a lack of international recognition, China is gradually making public the fact that the Taliban government's Charge d'affaires is already working in China.

Information of the meeting was first released on the official WeChat account of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. 

Chen said China has always been concerned about the difficulties faced by the Afghan people. Since August 2021, China has provided a large amount of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to help the people tide over the most difficult times. 

China is ready to work with Afghanistan to accelerate the implementation of the consensus reached at the high-level meeting by the two sides and make good use of the current mechanisms on humanitarian assistance and economic reconstruction connecting both sides, Chen said.

The Afghan official thanked China for its immediate, sincere condolences over the casualties caused by the earthquake, and thanked China for its long-term support to the Afghan people.

"Due to the urgency of earthquake relief, it is necessary to further expand assistance to Afghanistan," Zhu said, "The Chinese government has no way to bypass the Taliban, and their cooperation and support are needed in reality, so that relief assistance can be more efficient and the Afghan people can receive assistance more quickly."

China on Wednesday expressed readiness to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in light of its needs, and Kabul expressed its appreciation to China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

A deadly earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, and killed at least 1,100 people and injured 1,650, according to media reports. 

The aid includes assistance such as guidance and advice on disaster resistance, providing medicine, food, tents and blankets, as well as long-term aid to help Afghan people enhance their own ability to prevent and resist disasters such as establishing and training professional rescue and expert teams, Zhu said.

Some Chinese reached by the Global Times said they were safe during the earthquake. "Chinese people here are all safe, and their property and work were not affected, and   rescue is being carried out in an orderly manner," Yu Minghui, a local Chinese businessman in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, told the Global Times on Thursday afternoon. 

A Chinese surnamed Gao who works in Kabul told the Global Times on Thursday that the earthquake lasted about a minute and a half, which was felt in Chinatown in Kabul. 

"It was about one o'clock in the morning and I was awakened. I felt scared and quickly ran out of my room, seeing police standing in the streets," said Gao. She said that there was a slight earthquake in Kabul two to three days ago, but this one was so strong that can be easily felt. 

On noon Wednesday, it started to hail in Kabul, said Gao. "Local Chinese communities have not been affected by this earthquake so far," she said.

China is in close contact with relevant parties on the heavy casualties and property loss in the powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, and is willing to provide emergency relief assistance, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) said on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that he was saddened by the tragic loss of life in the earthquake. The UN in Afghanistan has been mobilized. The World Health Organization has delivered 100 cartons of emergency medicine to Afghanistan's Paktika, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday.