China offers vaccines, projects in bid to shore up relations with Central Asian neighbours

China has moved to shore up ties in Central Asia through pledges for vaccines and connectivity under its Belt and Road Initiative, amid growing criticism in the West of Beijing’s repression in the neighbouring Xinjiang region.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi offered to deepen regional cooperation on Covid-19 vaccines and the development of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the second meeting with the grouping on Wednesday in Xian, in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province.

The six countries also discussed building a “grand Eurasian passageway of interconnectivity”, new Chinese government scholarships for Central Asia, agricultural cooperation, playing a “constructive role” after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, as well as cracking down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement that Beijing has blamed for violence in Xinjiang.

In separate bilateral talks from Monday to Wednesday, Wang stressed the need to defend “non-interference in internal affairs” and the Central Asian countries’ foreign ministers said they supported China’s efforts in “safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and on the issue of Xinjiang, according to Chinese foreign ministry readouts.

The meetings come as Beijing clashed at the United Nations on Wednesday with the US, Germany and Britain over concerns about its treatment of Uygurs in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, which shares a border with Tajikistan, Kyrgzystan and Kazakhstan.