Chinese-Central Asian relations are advancing in different fields. The strategic nature of such cooperation and its broad spectrum are, together, responsible for the increasing attention such a topic has been gaining among scholars. Through September 2021, features of the economic aspect related to the interactions between China and the Central Asian nations, such as the impacts and directions of Chinese investments, were discussed among academic works, along with the security, infrastructural and even medical aspects of such a relation.
Considering the economic facet of China-Central Asian relations, Eric Balan proposes a discussion on the endeavors led under the scope of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Although such an economic and trade partnership seems to provide mutually beneficial gains for all states involved, the Chinese pressure to impose its own interests on the enterprise has been faced with the reality of the neighboring context. The analyses of different economic indicators, such as money supply, government expenditure and national exports suggest that the outcome of the geoeconomic prognosis does not deliver the level of economic confidence for a near-term multilateral economic partnership between Central Asian countries and China. In this sense, we may affirm that if the latter favors the development of the BRI, the former’s economy remains stagnated (see Eric Balan).
In a rather country-wide case study on the Kyrgyz Republic, Anežka Michalová advances some of Balan’s conclusions by demonstrating that the challenges posed by the uneven economic development among the actors involved in the BRI also holds political implications. The case of Kyrgyzstan, thus, is an interesting example of both the limits of the partnership between China and Central Asia and the social impacts of such a relationship. After the Chinese rise as the main economic power among all Central Asian nations in the 2000s, Kyrgyzstan's low level of state-ness and its susceptibility to economic inducements during president Atambayev's era prevented the government from overcoming domestic resistance to Chinese projects and implementing compliant behavior. Developmental aid and investment designed to favor the expansion of Chinese enterprises failed to gain the support of public opinion and contributed to the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment due to their involvement in corruption affairs and public scandals. Russia, therefore, rises as a third-party actor able to represent an alternative for Kyrgyz policymakers, concludes Anežka Michalová.
Other than economic diversity and political structure, another central aspect of the BRI that has been of utmost importance on the structuring of China’s relations with Central Asia is its large-scale transportation projects that are to build an expansive geographical reach via far-reaching connectivity and spillovers. As demonstrated in Xiangming Chen’s study, the China–Europe Freight Train (CEFT), in this sense, is an important milestone of the development of the political and economic regional context in which such states are inserted as it has already created a long geographical reach and major impact on the transport landscape spanning China, Central Asia, and Europe. Thus, a new logistics state in China at the local level has multiplied routes and redirected trade flows between China and Europe, reorganized inter-city and cross-border production and supply chains, stimulated new geography of globally oriented and nationally rebalanced local consumption. In short, the increase in the speed and capacity of transportation in the countries covered by the initiative have reorganized the productive scenario in Central Asia, China and beyond.
The Chinese intentions regarding the BRI, to expand its influence until the Mediterranean, represent an impressive threat to the West. The development of the project not only enhances China’s presence in strategic places, like Central Asia itself, but also increases the country’s logistic system. In this sense, beyond the economic, political and structural features of such an enterprise, the direction of the Chinese investments and the policies involved in the budget distribution is a central aspect for understanding the current China-West interactions. In this regard, Morena Skalamera Groce & Seçkin Köstem discuss how Beijing’s presence in the energy market affects such relations. Facing the multilateral Western counterpart, China is also increasing its presence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia’s energy markets, especially through direct financial investments. While the World Bank and the EBRD work closely with key local stakeholders in the recipient states to make energy reforms more successful, China is cooperating more closely with Western multilateral development banks (MDBs), and accepting and implementing some of their market principles and environmental targets. The dispute for influence over the energy sector in Central Asia demonstrates the West vs. China stand-off based on neoliberalism vs. state-capitalism dichotomy.
Morena Skalamera Groce and Seçkin Köstem discuss how the BRI is not the only instrument through which China frames its interaction with Central Asia. Further to the so-called “New Silk Road” and its economic and infrastructural aims, security cooperation is another important aspect through which Beijing has been increasing its presence in the region as a way to insulate itself from perceived threats in such terrain. In this regard, Rakhimov Komron et al. argue that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is another instrument that allows the Chinese state to project power beyond its borders. SCO military exercises offer a unique opportunity for the Chinese armed forces to practice air-ground combat operations in foreign countries, undertaking a range of operations including long-distance mobilization, counterterrorism missions, stability maintenance operations, and conventional warfare. The SCO gains experience by establishing the diplomatic relationships and arrangements necessary to support power projection. It is already using its diplomatic relationships to facilitate an active military presence in Central Asia, such as through its military outpost in Tajikistan and counterterrorism patrols in the China-Tajikistan-Afghanistan border area.
China-Central Asia relations, however, go beyond economic, security and energetic trends. As demonstrated by Aysel Sultan, Ingo Ilja Michels, Heino Stöver, medical cooperation is also a field of shared interest especially concerning the Implementation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid users. Considering the cases of medical assistance in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, the need for better integration and for more effective methods for successful scaling-up of access of MAT for opioid users is revealed by these authors. The comparison of the national treatment capacity of each of the three cases suggests that not only is it possible for the participating countries to establish a more cooperative approach in this matter, but it is also a desired achievement.
