Commentary The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers, have formed increasingly strong bonds. The CCP has its eyes on Afghanistan’s mineral deposits, which are worth somewhere in the region of $1 trillion. The United States occupied Afghanistan for 20 years, yet failed to capitalize on the most lucrative of opportunities. Home to an array of metallic minerals, including iron, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel, tin, gold, and uranium, Afghanistan has one of the biggest deposits of lithium in the world. There’s a reason why lithium batteries won the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry. From laptops to cellular phones, without lithium batteries, our lives would grind to an excruciating halt. As climate activists gain more of a stranglehold over governments, all in the hope of eliminating fossil fuels, the demand for lithium—more specifically, lithium-ion batteries—will certainly result in further geopolitical storms. With more people embracing the idea of solar, lithium-ion batteries have increased in importance. …