ARTICLE (August 31 2008): In this dusty village surrounded by craggy mountains, Chinese builders are hard at work on a new road, one of many projects paving the way to China's growing influence in Central Asia. Dressed in blue overalls and orange helmets, the scores of labourers load sacks of cement on excavators, ferry rocks down steep mountain slopes with cables and put finishing touches to a reinforced concrete tunnel.
"It's difficult here because there aren't many vegetables. But people are very kind, they always help out," said Zhang Pao, 35, a Chinese engineer, as he inspected the dimly-lit tunnel. "I'm pleased China is doing this project," said Zhang, as Chinese vans streamed past on the new road, carrying elderly Tajik men in Muslim skullcaps and women in bright veils through the arid mountain terrain.
The road through Tajikistan is part of a growing catalogue of Chinese investment projects in Central Asia that are changing the geopolitical face of this strategic, resource-rich region, once dominated by Moscow.
Road building in Tajikistan "is part of China's plan to open up markets in Central Asia and get access to hydrocarbons. That's China's main interest," said Saimuddin Dustov, an independent Tajik political analyst. "China has major influence over the politics and economics of these countries but it doesn't advertise it, unlike the others. It's a quiet policy of working against US and Russian interests," Dustov said.
The planned 354-kilometre (220-mile) road will link the Tajik capital of Dushanbe with the town of Chanak on the Tajik-Uzbek border, a vital route for trade in the impoverished region. An AFP reporter visited the construction site at Maikhura, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Dushanbe, the same week that Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived on an official visit to cement Sino-Tajik economic plans.
WE IMPORT EVERYTHING FROM CHINA "We are developing projects in electricity and roads. In the future, we want to invest in agriculture, light industry, telecoms, mining and infrastructure," Hu said after meeting Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on Wednesday. The Tajik leader referred to China as a "a big friend" for his country. Construction of the new road is being financed with 296 million dollars of credit from China.
China is also building power lines in Tajikistan and the country has already become a significant importer of a range of Chinese goods, from cosmetics to cars. "We import everything from China," said an official from Tajikistan's economic ministry. Trade turnover with China in the first six months of 2008 was 164 million dollars - 160 percent more than for the same period last year.
Large billboards erected for Hu's visit around Dushanbe read: "Welcome to Tajikistan, Dear Chinese Friends!" and "The People's Republic of China is Our Close Friend, Our Dear Neighbour and Our Reliable Partner!" No such signs could be seen for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was also in the city for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a regional security grouping of China, Russia and four Central Asian countries.
"Russia has no clear policy on Central Asia and that opens the way for China," said Dustov, adding that China had invested one billion dollars in Tajikistan since the early 1990s - far more than any other country. Reflecting the struggle for influence in Central Asia, road infrastructure in Tajikistan is also being built up by Iran and the United States, which financed a new bridge on the country's southern border with Afghanistan.
Russia, which has had troops based in Tajikistan since Soviet times, is also trying to regain some of its economic influence. Russian companies are bidding for projects in Tajikistan's hydroelectric power and aluminium industries. China's growing dominance in the region does not make conditions any easier for Shi Weili, 25, a Chinese-Tajik interpreter who has lived in Maikhura for the past two years translating between local inhabitants and Chinese workers.
"The winters here are terrible - very cold. And there are always avalanches blocking the road," Shi said, as she nursed an upset stomach in a new Chinese-built worker's hut next to the ramshackle cottages of the village.
