Embracing Taliban key to China’s goals in Central Asia. But Islamic State won’t let it happen

Large garbage bags had been used to cover up the magnificent tau tau — funeral effigies — standing over the swimming pool to avoid offending the guests. "The statues made it very obvious who the guy and who the gal are," the president of the energy giant Unocal, Marty Miller, gingerly explained. The shrouding had been mandated by a consultant hired to make sure cultural miscommunication did not end up sabotaging the $4.5 billion pipeline deal the oil tycoon hoped to seal over dinner that evening in 1997. The dinner went well: A photograph records the beaming madrasa-educated Taliban foreign…