For years, China has been developing closer ties with the nations of the region through trade, infrastructural development (railways and pipelines) and energy imports. It has also promoted military and financial cooperation. The result is that the United States could be shut out of the former Soviet republics.

Bishkek (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China’s economic and military presence in Central Asia is expanding at the expense of Russia, but especially the United States.

Trade between China and the five Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) topped US$ 25.9 billion in 2009, up from US$ 527 million in 1992.

Chinese traders bring Chinese clothing, electronics, appliances and other exports, open stores and invade local markets. The old Silk Road, which crosses Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan, is now travelled by countless lorries carrying Chinese goods.

In Tajikistan, Chinese state enterprises are building energy pipelines, railways and highways.

Kyrgyzstan has become an important transit point for Chinese goods that make their way to the Caspian Sea region, Russia and Europe.

Pipelines across Central Asia are bringing oil and gas to the mainland from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, alternative sources of energy to a politically unstable Middle East and tankers using the Strait of Malacca, which China does not control.

In the past few years, the Chinese government has also opened Confucius Institutes to teach Mandarin in Central Asian capitals across Central Asia.

With its rapid growth, China has taken “advantage of the lack of initiative in the region by the United States and Russia,” Chinese General Liu Yazhou wrote in an essay published last summer. “China has begun stimulating feverish consumerism in the area” and developed large markets for its cheap products.

Some analysts suggest that Beijing wants to break down trade barriers and integrate economically Central Asia with its remote region of Xinjiang.

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan all belong to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), along with China and Russia, which was originally set up to fight terrorism but has increasingly focused on economic matters as well. Members often share intelligence and conduct joint military exercises. In 2010, China granted US$ 10 billion in loans to SCO nations.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States sought to contain the mainland by building a ring across Central Asia, India and Afghanistan that included US military bases. US companies took part in the development of energy resources in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Now it risks being shut out.

According to a State Department cable released by WikiLeaks, US officials suspected China of offering Kyrgyzstan US$ 3 billion to close the US air base in Manas, the only one it still has in the region, deemed crucial for its action in neighbouring  Afghanistan.

At the same time though, the other nations of the region are concerned about a Chinese invasion, both goods and migrants, fearing they might take over the economy of under populated regions. And yet these countries have no alternative to Chinese capital and trade.

(pictured, Kyrgyz shepherds receiving Chinese solar panels)

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