Official: China respects Afghan people's will and choice

China said on Monday it would respect the "Afghan people's will and choice," after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government.

The country's Western-trained security forces collapsed in a matter of days, even before the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops.

In a news conference in Beijing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China hoped that the Taliban would "be united with all the parties and the ethnicities and establish a comprehensive and inclusive political structure" which would "lay the foundation for sustainable peace in Afghanistan."

Hua also told journalists that China would continue to develop "good-neighbourly relations" with Afghanistan and continue to respect its "sovereignty, independence and integrity of territories."

Her remarks come after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a delegation of high-level Taliban officials, including leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Tianjin in July.

China and Afghanistan share a narrow border high in the remote Wakhan Valley, and China has long been concerned about a possible spillover of Islamic militancy into its formerly volatile Xinjiang region.

However, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is seen as a boon to China, Washington's chief strategic competitor, which has long resented the presence of U.S. troops in what it considers its own backyard.

With the Taliban takeover and collapse of the U.S.-backed central government, China could gain a strategic corridor allowing it and long-time ally Pakistan to bring further pressure against common rival India.

China has also signed deals for oil, gas and copper mining in Afghanistan, although those have long been dormant.