Afghanistan’s new road to China 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 here, and yet, on October 4, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government celebrated the opening of a road leading to the frontier – but cruci...