China and Central Asia

Let’s go back to China and her role in the battle for Eurasia. When comparing Russia with China, taking into account demographic power, it is necessary to take into account as well the climate conditions with its ocean of people, which also represents an element of geopolitical force. China is a state and civilization and it is better to compare China with other civilizations than with individual countries.

China is economically very active in Eurasia. Currently, the so-called First (Northern) Eurasian Transcontinental Transport Corridor is used, which runs from China, through Kazakhstan and Russia to Europe. Annually by this corridor passes 140 trains with containers full of goods. However, China is pursuing an active policy for the realization of the Second (Central) Eurasian transcontinental transport corridor, which should pass through the territory of Central Asia and the South Caucasus or Iran and the Middle East. The first variant provides for the passage from China, through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Turkey is particularly interested in its underwater railway tunnel project under the Marmara Sea and Bosphorus – “Marmaraj”. The first phase of the project was completed in 2013.

China also intensively performs in Central Asia using “soft power”, which refers exclusively to investments in economies of countries such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, China receives energy from the Central Asian countries, for example, there are Turkmenistan A and B pipelines through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China, and in the near future pipelines C and D will be built through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kazakh-Chinese oil pipeline and electricity transmission line from Kyrgyzstan to China. These are all supplementary sources of funding for these Central Asian countries.

On Silk Road Summit last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented concrete initiatives to build the shortest and most cost-effective route. The Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union gave an order to start negotiations with China on signing trade and economic cooperation agreements. The volume of Russian oil exports to China is increasing, and in 2016, it reached 2.5 million tons.