SHARQSHUNOSLIK /
ВОСТОКОВЕДЕНИЕ
/ ORIENTAL STUDIES 2018,
№
4
102
жаҳон
кўргазмаси
,
Россияда
Хитой
йили
,
Берлиндаги
маданият
ҳафталиги
),
сиёсат
(
АСЕАН
саммити
,
аёллар
ҳуқуқлари
масалалари
бўйича
БМТ
Халқа
-
ро
анжумани
)
каби
соҳаларда
кўплаб
тадбирлар
ташкил
этилди
.
Бундай
тадбирларнинг
уюштирилиши
нафақат
ўзи
ҳақида
жаҳон
ҳамжамиятининг
фаол
аъзоси
сифатида
яна
бир
бор
маълум
қилиш
,
балки
мамлакатнинг
ривожланиш
даражасини
намойиш
этиш
,
чет
эллик
меҳмонларга
Хитой
“
жозиба
”
сини
ҳис
қилиб
кўриш
учун
ҳам
яхши
имконият
ҳисобланади
.
Шундай
қилиб
,
халқаро
майдонда
Хитой
давлат
ижобий
имижини
оши
-
ришда
асосий
воситалар
қаторига
:
биринчидан
,
ОАВ
ва
нашрлардан
фойда
-
ланиш
орқали
,
иккинчидан
,
маданият
ва
таълим
соҳасидаги
алмашинишлар
орқали
,
учинчидан
,
мамлакатларга
иқтисодий
ёрдам
кўрсатишни
киритиш
орқали
,
тўртинчидан
,
Конфуций
институтлари
ёрдамида
чет
элда
Хитой
маданияти
ва
тилини
фаол
тарқатиш
,
илм
-
фан
соҳасида
ҳамкорлик
қилиш
,
йирик
миқёсдаги
тадбирлар
ташкил
қилиш
,
халқаро
ташкилот
ва
лойиҳа
-
ларда
фаол
иштирок
этиш
орқали
Хитой
халқ
дипломатиясининг
барча
элементларини
уйғунликда
ривожлантиришга
интилмоқда
.
Муҳими
шундаки
,
мамлакат
раҳбарияти
Хитойнинг
ташқи
ва
ички
сиёсий
мақсадларга
муваффақиятли
эришиши
ва
давлат
имиджини
халқаро
майдонда
нуфузини
кўтаришида
“
халқ
дипломатияси
”
воситаларидан
фой
-
даланишнинг
зарурлиги
,
унинг
самарали
натижа
беришини
англаб
етди
ва
уларни
амалиётга
фаол
жорий
эта
бошлади
.
IBROKHIMOV DILSHOD
Researcher, TSIOS
The logic of diplomacy and China’s foreign
policy toward Central Asia
Abstract.
Today China tries to enhance its strategic positing in the international arena
where it is persisting a severe rivalry among great powers for influence. From this
perspective, this article analyzes the importance of Central Asian region for Chinese foreign
policy. Xi Jinping’s presidency has given a new impetus to the revitalization of relations
between Central Asian States and China. First of all, it is related to China’s new strategy
known as “One Belt, One Road” where Central Asia is considered as an important region.
Keywords and expressions:
Central Asia, Chinese foreign policy, One Belt One
Road, infrastructure, energy pipeline, geopolitical competition.
Аннотация
.
Қудратли
давлатлар
ўртасидаги
рақобат
авж
олиб
бораётган
бир
пайтда
,
халқаро
саҳнада
ўз
стратегик
позициясини
мустаҳкамлашга
инти
-
лаётган
Хитой
халқ
республикаси
учун
Марказий
Осиё
минтақасининг
катта
аҳамият
касб
этиши
мазкур
мақолада
таҳлил
қилинган
.
Президент
Си
Цзиньпин
ҳукмронлик
йиллари
Марказий
Осиё
давлатлари
ва
Хитой
ўртасидаги
ўзаро
муносабатларининг
фаоллашуви
даври
бўлди
,
десак
муболаға
бўлмайди
.
Бу
,
ав
-
валамбор
,
Хитойнинг
янги
“
Бир
макон
,
бир
йўл
”
номли
стратегияси
билан
боғлиқ
бўлиб
,
унда
Марказий
Осиё
минтақасига
алоҳида
эътибор
қаратилган
.
Таянч
сўз
ва
иборалар
:
Марказий
Осиё
,
Хитой
ташқи
сиёсати
, “
Бир
макон
,
бир
йўл
”,
инфратузилма
,
энергия
магистрали
,
геосиёсий
мусобақа
.
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Аннотация
.
В
данной
статье
анализируется
важность
Центрально
-
азиатс
-
кого
вектора
для
Китая
,
который
стремится
улучшить
свои
стратегические
позиции
на
международной
арене
в
условиях
жесткой
конкуренции
за
влияние
между
ведущими
державами
.
Период
правления
президента
Си
Цзиньпина
можно
охарактеризовать
как
новый
толчок
в
активизации
взаимоотношений
между
государствами
Центральной
Азии
и
Китая
.
В
первую
очередь
,
это
связано
с
новой
стратегией
КНР
под
названием
«
Один
пояс
,
один
путь
»,
в
которой
важное
место
отведено
региону
Центральной
Азии
.
Опорные
слова
и
выражения
:
Центральная
Азия
,
внешняя
политика
Китая
,
«
Один
пояс
,
один
путь
»,
инфраструктура
,
энергетическая
магистраль
,
геополи
-
тическое
соревнование
.
Introduction
Today we are observing the fundamental process of geopolitical and geoeconomic
changes in the world. Undoubtedly, the Eurasian continent and the adjacent areas of
the African continent (and possibly Africa as a whole) became the main arena of
these changes. Here we can use the term “Greater Eurasia” which involves not only
leading actors such as the Western Europe, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, India,
Turkey, but also other relatively-small, but economically important emerging nations
in Europe, Asia and Middle East. It should be noted that Greater Eurasia is not
limited to the concept of the Heartland, term used by famous British geographer John
Mackinder. Most of these changes are associated with trends that emerged back in the
1990s and early 2000s. While at the same time, we can perceive the erosion of those
characteristics of globalization that were associated with the triumph of the post-
bipolar world order. One of the most important prerequisites for the emergence of
Greater Eurasia is the strengthening of the semi-peripheral and peripheral powers that
caught the wind of globalization in their sails and quickly began to catch up with the
developed powers. Actually, China, the most successfully coping with the hardships
of the financial crisis in 2008, turned out to be not only the second economy of the
world, but also declared global ambitions.
Increasing China's influence in Central Asia, linking Beijing with its own
development, first of all, by financing the construction of infrastructure facilities in
the region, expanding Chinese participation in the development of natural resources,
using the potential of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and promoting the
alternative integration project of the Silk Road Economic Belt, become stable trends
of the Central Asian vector of China's foreign policy. This article examines the new
ambitious plans of Chinese government to build stable and long-term relations
between China with its western neighbors, located in Central Asia. In order to provide
a more general understanding, this study uses the “Bottom-up” approach when
explaining the bilateral relations between China and Central Asian countries.
Chinese new foreign policy and logic of diplomacy
Central Asia is important for China and forms one of the key directions of its
foreign policy. In should be noted that China acts in Central Asia not from the
point of view of geography, but in the logic of diplomacy. The purpose of the
Chinese strategy is to maintain friendly relations with all adjacent or closely
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located countries, to form a belt of stability around the country. The significance
of the peripheral strategy is determined by the fact that it can help create a
friendly and safe environment, improve China's strategic position, increase its
diplomatic resources and expand its international influence. The need for a peri-
pheral strategy stems from the fact that China has borders with fourteen countries
and the total length of its land borders exceeds 20,000 km. Therefore, the Chinese
neighborhood diplomacy is quite complicated. Neighboring countries are very
different, and their relations with China are also very diverse. Some sections of
the border are affected by historically arisen territorial disputes.
In autumn 2013 President Xi started a historical tour to the Central Asia region.
Speaking at the Nazarbaev University in Kazakhstan, he announced his ambitious
vision concerning China’s future endeavors in Eurasian continent. His famous speech
marked the start of implementing “Silk Road Economic Belt” framework aiming at
building for large-scale economic infrastructure projects. This initiative intends to
promote physical connectivity through creating transport corridors and energy
pipelines linking China with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia,
Mongolia, Iran, Turkey, the Balkans, the Western Europe. Soon afterwards, in
October 2013 speaking at the Indonesian Parliament, President Xi Jinping proposed
the countries of South-East Asia to jointly create a new “Maritime Silk Road” linking
south-east China with south-east Asia, Bangladesh, India, the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean, ultimately also ending up in Germany and the Netherlands. Thus,
Chinese leader presented to the world community a new development strategy coined
as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) which consists of two components – “Silk Road
Economic Belt” (Belt) and “Maritime Silk Road” (Road). The main goal of these two
projects is upgrade existing infrastructure and develop new transcontinental railway
routes, highways, port facilities and energy pipelines. OBOR potentially involves
over 60 countries with a combined population of over 4 billion people, whose
markets currently account for about one-third of global GDP
1
.
1
Ferdinand P. Westward ho – the China dream and ‘one belt, one road’: Chinese foreign policy
under Xi Jinping. International Affairs, 92: 941–957. doi:10.1111/1468- 2346.12660.
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By initiating OBOR, China reaffirmed its intention to push forward a new
model of globalization. It implies a creation of more complex connectivity among
the countries of the world through the targeted economic relations, improved trade
and sophisticated interregional infrastructure systems.
The first phase
of the OBOR lasted from 2013 to 2016. In this period, China
succeeded to convince the world that OBOR is a completely different model of
cooperation and “win-win” outcome is still reachable in bilateral economic rela-
tions.
1
For this reason, more than 70 countries expressed their willingness to join
Chinese new development strategy. In fact, China has signed bilateral interna-
tional cooperation agreements with more than 40 countries. This phase can be
described as a period of “Declaration of bilateral intentions”.
Today we are observing
a second phase
of OBOR and this was marked during
the High level summit – the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation,
successfully conducted on May 14-15, 2017 in Beijing. This stage requires more
focused work with the potential partner countries located along Belt and Road
initiative. During this summit, there were serious talks among participating coun-
tries on the ways forward and putting in place a concrete institutional framework
for this initiative. Unlike the first phase where all agreements have a bilateral
importance, this second phase will push more multilateral interaction among the
counties involved in OBOR.
OBOR has its own logic. According to Chinese experts, the majority of
world’s population has not benefited from the existing version of globalization
mainly built on the Western values and interests. In this regard, new Chinese mo-
del is based on creating a strong physical connectivity through infrastructure.
2
It is
designed to bring a prosperity in the least developed parts of the world. As it was
argued by some experts, most developing countries of the South are not satisfied
with the results of the American version of globalization as its negative effects left
many poor nations out of elementary basic needs such as electricity, drinkable
water, safe food, housing, etc. China, unlike the West, proposes an equal coope-
ration within the framework of OBOR initiative
3
.
Priority areas for China in regard to Central Asia
Central Asian region is adjacent to China's geography. There is unanimous
view among the scholars that Central Asia is an important international trans-
1
“Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime
Silk Road” (March 2015), issued by China’s National Development and Reform Commission,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, with
State Council Authorization, available at http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/newsrelease/201503/t20150330
_669367.html
2
Zhao Minghao (2015). China’s New Silk Road Initiative, IAI Working papers, the Istituto Affari
Internazionali.
3
Wang Yiwei (2016). The Belt and Road Initiative: what will China offer the world in its rise,
New World Press.
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portation hub for trade in goods, people’s travelling and information exchange
between Asia and Europe
1
.
For the Chinese foreign policy in the region, Central Asia is important in a
number of aspects and less significant in others.
Security issues
are on the top
priority agenda, however Central Asia itself is not a source of threat. Although the
military presence of other great powers in this region can turn into a strategic
threat, this presence can only create a disturbance for China, but not a direct
attack. For Beijing, the main threat to China's security comes from terrorist,
separatist and extremist forces. Xinjiang, the main arena of the destabilizing
factors, is located near the Central Asian borders. So it is so important for China
to cooperate with Central Asia to contain the separatist onslaught, and Central
Asia can play an important role.
Another vital area for cooperation is certainly the
energy sector
which
represents an important factor of Chinese interests in Central Asia. Since Central
Asia has rich oil and gas deposits, imports from this region are an extremely
attractive opportunity. The forecast of imports of Central Asian oil is very
favorable; energy from this region can make a significant share of Chinese energy
imports and play a significant role in meeting the country's energy needs. For
instance, according to the statistics of 2014 by FACTS Global Energy, the Middle
East delivers more than 51% of China's oil imports, and about 17 % is imported
from Africa, the second most important supplier. The third significant source is
Russia, which accounts for more than 11% of China's oil imports. In Central Asia,
Kazakhstan is the main oil exporter to China. After the completion of the Sino-
Kazakhstan oil pipeline, Central Asia is expected to be able to increase supplies.
Over the past two decades, the position of Central Asia in Chinese diplomacy
has undergone a certain change. The main direction was a gradual increase, and
the factor of Central Asia became more independent. Initially, China perceived
Central Asia as a kind of Russian “traditional sphere of influence”. There were
some reasons for this.
Firstly, Russia and the Central Asian republics were one side of negotiations
with China concerning the border demarcation talks.
Secondly, for a long time Chinese experts considered Central Asia not as an
independent entity, but as politically and economically dependent states with pro-
Russian foreign policy orientation. This reflected the traditional attitude of
Chinese diplomacy to Central Asia. However, after the creation of Shanghai
Cooperation Organization, Central Asian countries began to refer to China as an
alternative center of gravity in the Central Asian strategic balance. Moreover, the
1
Cheklina T. N. (2015). Perspektivy sotrudnichestva stran Shankhayskoy organizatsii
sotrudnichestva v ramkakh proekta «Ekonomicheskiy poyas na Velikom shelkovom puti»
[Prospects of Cooperation of the Countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation within the
«Economic Belt on the Great Silk Way» Project], Rossiyskiy vneshneekonomicheskiy vestnik,
2015, No. 2. (In Russian).
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announcement of One Belt and One Road strategy strengthened once again
“Chinese vector” of Central Asian foreign policy.
Conclusions
A new generation of leaders led by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang came to power
in China and started to implement a set of measures associated with the reorient-
tation of the economy to the development of domestic demand, while simul-
taneously carrying out structural reforms, leveling disproportions and stimulating
innovative activity. After the tremendous achievements in domestic economic
policy, now China actively increases the cumulative power in its foreign policy
strategy. It factually begins to rely more on the determinants of the global politics,
seeking to transform the modern architecture of international relations into its
national interests, making it more multipolar and dynamic. As Mark Leonard,
director of European Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out, rather than trying
to overthrow existing institutions as many had feared, Beijing is instead using this
economic might to link up to the rest of the world and develop a series of
relationships and institutions which result in a more China-centric world order.
This new economic and political order is structured differently from Western-led
multilateral institutions which are underpinned by treaties, international law and
the pooling of sovereignty
1
.
The China‘s “Revival” in the system of international relations is reflected in
the strengthening of Beijing's position in various regions of the world, including
in Central Asia, which, due to its important geostrategic position and the presence
of significant hydrocarbon reserves, continues to be the focus of attention of the
Chinese establishment. In the light of Beijing's recent increased activity in the
Central Asian region, a comprehensive assessment of the Chinese foreign policy
towards the region is becoming more relevant and in demand.
1
World Economic Forum, Geo-economics with Chinese Characteristics: How China’s economic
might is reshaping world politics, Regional Agenda, January 2016, available at
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Geoeconomics_with_Chinese_Characteristics.pdf
