Edward LemonandBradley Jardine

Opinion | How China can tighten its Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia

China should veer away from large-scale, top-down investments and seek to work with local companies to build sustainable projects that benefit Central Asians and minimise government corruption

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Edward LemonandBradley Jardine

Published: 1:00am, 14 Oct 2020Updated: 11:54am, 14 Oct 2020

This February, hundreds of residents of At-Bashy, a mountain town in Kyrgyzstan, gathered to protest against the construction of a new Chinese-funded logistics centre in the area. Holding signs reading “No Kyrgyz Land To China!”, the protesters argued that locals would see few benefits from the US$275 million project, designed to handle trade coming from the Chinese border some 140 kilometres away.

Tension over the new centre had been brewing for months, with at least three previous protests. Bowing to popular pressure, the Kyrgyz government cancelled the project.

China’s growing presence in Central Asia, a linchpin of the Belt and Road Initiative, has not been welcomed by many locals. Feeling cut out of the benefits of Chinese investments, or outraged by China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, Central Asians have increasingly protested against Beijing, sometimes violently.

A recent database of protests in the region collected by the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs records 98 anti-China protests since 2018, with all but one (in Tajikistan) taking place in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

An eight-day drill between China and Tajikistan that wrapped up in August 2019 shows China is bolstering its security ties in Central Asia. Photo: Xinhua

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia emerged as the dominant power in Central Asia, accounting for 80 per cent of regional trade. Today, China has overtaken Russia, with the latter accounting for just under two-thirds of Beijing’s US$30 billion.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} China should veer away from large-scale, top-down investments and seek to work with local companies to build sustainable projects that benefit Central Asians and minimise government corruption

China should veer away from large-scale, top-down investments and seek to work with local companies to build sustainable projects that benefit Central Asians and minimise government corruption