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China Expands Its Influence In Central Asia
Aside from seizing the spotlight in East and Southeast Asia with its widening economic footprint and stern diplomacy, China is also quietly making its presence in Central Asia.
Central Asia is a critical frontier for China's energy security, trade expansion, ethnic stability and military defense. State-run enterprises have reached deep into the region with energy pipelines, railroads and highways, while the government has recently opened Confucius Institutes to teach Mandarin in capitals across Central Asia.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the five predominantly Muslim countries that won independence after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, are viewed by China, Russia and the United States as a conduit for troops to Afghanistan.
China is elaborating its own military muscle in the area, conducting sophisticated war games in Kazakhstan as part of its annual exercises that traditionally invite participation from Central Asian nations.
Yet China's new presence in Central Asia is not solely for the sake of pursuing a military agenda. Even though the Central Asian governments are wary, Beijing's goal is to economically integrate Central Asia with the restive western region of Xinjiang,
Local people are cautious too, especially in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, where they have long feared that Chinese migration could tip the balance of economic power in sparsely populated countries.
"Many of us Kazakhs are very suspicious of the Chinese influx in general, but what can we do?" said Aidelhan Onbedbayev, 35, a driver who shuttles merchants and travelers between Almaty and Zharkent, a border town, according to the New York Times.
The Central Asian nations bordering China, especially Kyrgyzstan, have become an important transit point for Chinese goods that make their way to the Caspian Sea region, Russia and Europe. According to United States Commerce Ministry statistics, trade between China and the five Central Asian countries totaled US$25.9 billion in 2009, up from US$527 million in 1992,
Also, China's growing thirst for oil and gas has lead to the building of two new pipelines which transport gas from Turkmenistan and oil from Kazakhstan to China.
Since longstanding tensions between Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han have exploded into deadly violence recently, China also sees Central Asia as a foothold for maintaining stability in Xinjiang. Chinese officials have been especially wary of radical Islam filtering in from the Central Asian nations or neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan since ethnic rioting in 2009 in Xinjiang.
"China has always paid attention to these surrounding countries, promoting peaceful development in those countries in order to provide a good environment for China's economic growth," said Wu Hongwei, a Central Asia scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
China Expands Its Influence In Central Asia?Politics?News?WantChinaTimes.com
Aside from seizing the spotlight in East and Southeast Asia with its widening economic footprint and stern diplomacy, China is also quietly making its presence in Central Asia.
Central Asia is a critical frontier for China's energy security, trade expansion, ethnic stability and military defense. State-run enterprises have reached deep into the region with energy pipelines, railroads and highways, while the government has recently opened Confucius Institutes to teach Mandarin in capitals across Central Asia.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the five predominantly Muslim countries that won independence after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, are viewed by China, Russia and the United States as a conduit for troops to Afghanistan.
China is elaborating its own military muscle in the area, conducting sophisticated war games in Kazakhstan as part of its annual exercises that traditionally invite participation from Central Asian nations.
Yet China's new presence in Central Asia is not solely for the sake of pursuing a military agenda. Even though the Central Asian governments are wary, Beijing's goal is to economically integrate Central Asia with the restive western region of Xinjiang,
Local people are cautious too, especially in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, where they have long feared that Chinese migration could tip the balance of economic power in sparsely populated countries.
"Many of us Kazakhs are very suspicious of the Chinese influx in general, but what can we do?" said Aidelhan Onbedbayev, 35, a driver who shuttles merchants and travelers between Almaty and Zharkent, a border town, according to the New York Times.
The Central Asian nations bordering China, especially Kyrgyzstan, have become an important transit point for Chinese goods that make their way to the Caspian Sea region, Russia and Europe. According to United States Commerce Ministry statistics, trade between China and the five Central Asian countries totaled US$25.9 billion in 2009, up from US$527 million in 1992,
Also, China's growing thirst for oil and gas has lead to the building of two new pipelines which transport gas from Turkmenistan and oil from Kazakhstan to China.
Since longstanding tensions between Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han have exploded into deadly violence recently, China also sees Central Asia as a foothold for maintaining stability in Xinjiang. Chinese officials have been especially wary of radical Islam filtering in from the Central Asian nations or neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan since ethnic rioting in 2009 in Xinjiang.
"China has always paid attention to these surrounding countries, promoting peaceful development in those countries in order to provide a good environment for China's economic growth," said Wu Hongwei, a Central Asia scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
China Expands Its Influence In Central Asia?Politics?News?WantChinaTimes.com
