Central Asia: the view from China

China’s rise in Central Asia was not a new phenomenon. Beijing had gradually moved to become the most significant and consequential actor on the ground in a region that was previously considered Russia’s backyard. In September 2014, President Xi Jinping announced the creation of a ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ running through the region. Although this declaration was the closest thing seen so far in terms of an articulation of a Chinese strategy for Central Asia, it nevertheless offered more questions than answers.

To understand China’s approach to Central Asia, a wider lens needed to be applied to explore both the detail of what was going on and how this fitted into a broader foreign policy strategy that was slowly becoming clearer under Xi Jinping’s stewardship.

Issue Alert by Raffaello Pantucci.