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Editors' Note
Marlène Laruelle and Sébastien Peyrouse
To shed new light on China-Central Asia relations and to avoid the welltrodden paths of studies on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the energy issue, we have chosen to cast a more in-depth look at the impact of China on Central Asian societies. This issue of China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly is therefore situated at the cross-roads of studies on international relations and of sociological approaches to the “transition” of the former Soviet space. China’s rise to power in the Central Asian space constitutes a driving force of social change. Cultural apprehensions, although difficult to measure, are a key area of international relations: the functioning and evolution of the world system are shaped by local representations of it (...)
The Central Asian Policy of the People’s Republic of China
Ablat Khodzhaev
This article analyzes the PRC policy toward Central Asia with an emphasis on events after independence in 1991, focusing mainly on the influence of the growing Chinese presence on the economic and especially industrial development of contemporary Central Asia. China considers Central Asia to be a vital zone on which its own internal security in Xinjiang depends, but also as a source of income and of low-cost raw materials, a market for its goods, and a corridor to Europe and the Middle East. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization can be a guarantor of a balance of interests in Central Asia only if its activities involve all countries interested in developing relations with the Central Asian region (...)
Social Perceptions of China and the Chinese: A View from Kazakhstan
Konstantin Syroezhkin
In Kazakhstan the official line is supported by rapidly changing attitudes toward China, viewed as a balance to Russia and the West. However, many local articles on “Chinese expansion” and “Chinese migration” paint a darker picture. The exaggeration of the Chinese power, which breeds irrational fears and different kinds of phobias, prevents an adequate assessment of its foreign policy, and reanimates the concept of an economic and demographic Chinese “takeover” of its neighbors. To analyze Kazakh perceptions of China, one must separate several social groups and strata: the political establishment, experts, and the general public. Each of them has a different perception of China and the Chinese presence, as well as a different understanding of the problems of China, its traditions, and the Chinese way of life (...)
China-Central Asia Trade Relations: Economic and Social Patterns
Sadykzhan Ibraimov
The aim of this article is to study China’s economic presence in Central Asia and its main involvements in raw materials, transport routes, opening of markets and free economic zones, and small and medium-scale projects. It must be noted that over the years from 1992 to 2007, the highest trading volumes were between China and Kazakhstan, which represented from 80 to 86 percent of all Chinese-Central Asian trade. This growing economic cooperation has a social impact on the development of a Central Asian business diaspora based in Xinjiang. China also demonstrates its capacity to use local corruption schemes and internal Central Asian weaknesses in its own interests: From the earliest years of independence, smuggling with China, especially the export of metals and the import of consumer goods, has proved to be a very profitable venture for Central Asian high-level officials (...)
The Multifaceted Chinese Presence in Tajikistan
Saodat Olimova
The rapid development of relationships between China and Tajikistan in recent years has been accompanied by surging growth of Chinese migration into Tajikistan. This intensification of economic, political, and cultural connections has broadened the Tajik population’s images and understanding of China and the Chinese migrants among them. Until now the details of Chinese migration have been neglected by researchers. Nevertheless, it can be studied as a separate phenomenon with its own specificities. Questions include who the Chinese workers in Tajikistan are, what they do, what their living conditions are, and how they interact with the local population (...)
The Issue of Chinese Migrants in Kyrgyzstan
Amantur Zhaparov
Perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union opened a new era of relations between China and independent Kyrgyzstan. Geographic proximity and dynamic socio-economic development played essential roles in the establishment of good neighbor relations. Interstate treaties were signed and diplomatic relations initiated deeper development of bilateral relations. But the major part of trade ties with China is related to Chinese migrants, legal as illegal. This article therefore focuses on these Chinese migrants and petty traders working at Kyrgyz markets, in commercial centers or small enterprises (...)
Cross-border Minorities as Cultural and Economic Mediators between China and Central Asia
Marlène Laruelle and Sébastien Peyrouse
Sino-Central Asian trade is for the most part in the hands either of large state-run enterprises, or of the Hans from Xinjiang—particularly the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps—or lastly of private entrepreneurs from Zhejiang. The Uyghurs, Dungans, and China’s Central Asians minorities have therefore a limited room for trade and their competitiveness remains modest. However, these cross-border minorities play, have played, or might be called upon to play a role in the development of Sino-Central Asian economic relations and in the cultural mediations between the two worlds. Even if this niche remains humble compared to the overall Sino-Central-Asian relations, it constitutes a key element in the social strategies of trans-nationalization being put into place by these minorities (...)
