Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

China is ‘building a training camp in Afghanistan’ to fight terrorism
China has started building a training camp for Afghan troops in a narrow corridor that connects the two countries – a project Beijing is fully funding to help its neighbour boost counterterrorism efforts, sources close to the military said. (scmp)

Why the Muslim world isn't saying anything about China’s repression and 'cultural cleansing' of its downtrodden Muslim minority
Muslim countries have been silent over China's crackdown on its Uighurs, a Muslim-majority ethnic minority in the country's west. (businessinsider)

Imran Khan expected to stick with Chinese investment projects after Pakistan election victory

Khan’s party and other opposition parties have staged frequent protests that caused projects associated with the corridor to be delayed, but Khan stressed that the target was Sharif and not China. (scmp)

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation looking frosty from Astana

Kazakhstan is one of Russia’s closest allies in Central Asian, and the relationship between Russia and Kazakhstan plays an important role in the functioning of the SCO. But the relationship has recently become rocky. Kazakhstan–China relations are ostensibly faring better. According to the official Kazakh narrative, relations between Kazakhstan and China are exemplary and Astana is eager to capture the opportunities provided by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China has pledged to provide more than US$600 million to support the development of transport infrastructure in Kazakhstan within the next five years, and Chinese companies are building a light rail transit system in Astana with US$1.9 billion that Kazakhstan borrowed from the China Development Bank. More than 127 projects cumulatively worth US$67 billion were signed between Kazakhstan and China in the past six years. New joint projects were also discussed during Nazarbayev’s last visit to China in areas such as energy, oil and gas, new technologies and cultural cooperation.(eastasiaforum)

Kazakhs Increasingly Hostile to Both Russians and Chinese
Kazakhstanis are increasingly skeptical of close ties with both Russians and Chinese, profoundly limiting the ability of the former to recover the influence Moscow once had there and making it far more difficult for Beijing to move in and supplant it. (Jamestown)

Sauytbay Trial in Kazakhstan Puts Astana in a Bind with China
The complexities of international relations aside, is Kazakhstan going to choose China over Kazakhs? (the diplomat)

Asylum seeker to remain in Kazakhstan in Chinese internment centre case
A Kazakh court has decided against deporting a Chinese woman of Kazakh descent back to China, where her lawyers say she faces a risk of torture after working at a secretive internment centre in China’s western region of Xinjiang (FT)

CHINESE HANDLING OF KAZAKHS A BUMP IN BELT AND ROAD
Astana’s economic ties with Beijing leave it with a headache in dealing with public anger over the internment of its nationals in Xinjiang’s ‘re-education centres’ (scmp)

Kazakh port in decline bids for slice of China trade
With the outlines of its six idle cranes obscured by thick fog and pouring rain, Kazakhstan's Caspian seaport Aktau seems an unlikely stop on China's much-hyped new silk road.
But the sleepy port, which has been badly hit in recent years by new oil routes, is vying for a slice of the pie as competition for Chinese trade warms up on the shores of the world's largest inland sea. (AFP)

Crackdown in Xinjiang: Where have all the people gone?
The impact is beginning to be felt outside the region. Once thriving trade with China’s neighbours in Central Asia and Pakistan has dried up, with foreign traders unable to receive their usual one-month visas due to heightened security screening. Inventory depots, where traders gather to make deals, offload goods and exchange currency, have seen traffic plummet. (FT)

Criminal Arrests in Xinjiang Account for 21% of China’s Total in 2017

According to Chinese government data, criminal arrests in Xinjiang accounted for an alarming 21% of all arrests in China in 2017, though the population in the XUAR is only about 1.5% of China’s total. The ratio of formal arrests made in Xinjiang has increased by 306% in the past five years compared to the previous five-year period.Of the total number of people arrested from 2013 to 2017, nearly 70% of the arrests were made in the year 2017 alone. (nchrd)

Companies help create jobs, reduce poverty in Xinjiang

Huafu Fashion Co. Ltd., the world's largest supplier of melange yarn, will invest in 100 poor villages in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as part of three-year poverty-relief plan. Based in east China's Zhejiang Province, Huafu plans to invest a total of 100 million yuan (around 15 million US dollars) in 100 poverty-stricken villages in developing industries to boost employment over the following three years. (Xinhua)

China's CNPC to invest more than $22 billion to boost Xinjiang oil, gas output by 2020

China’s state oil company CNPC said on Wednesday it will invest more than 150 billion yuan ($22 billion) by 2020 to boost oil and gas output in the western Xinjiang region, the latest move to replace falling output from ageing fields in northeast China. Output will exceed 50 million tonnes of oil equivalent in the Xinjiang region within two years, CNPC said. (Reuters)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang tells Buddhist leaders to defend ethnic unity on rare trip to Tibet
Li also vows to boost infrastructure spending to improve economy, visiting tunnel construction site for railway link with Sichuan

Southern Xinjiang gets better connected

A key roadway in Hotan prefecture, in the south of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, was opened to traffic for the first time on Wednesday. The four-lane highway is an important component of China's planned road network that aims to better connect the country with Central and South Asia. (China Daily)

Russia, Central Asia accept BRI gainful

The ancient Silk Road once linked China with Central Asia and Russia, as well as Europe. In the 21st century, Central Asian countries have established even closer economic and trade ties with China. In fact, a series of medium-and long-term economic development strategies devised by the Central Asian countries have much in common with the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, and thus have created ample room and good opportunities for strategic cooperation. (China Daily)

China-Europe freight trains make 10,000 trips

"China has accumulated abundant management experience in running container terminals. After the acquisition, we've gradually introduced an advanced operation process and management into Noatum, and improved efficiency". With the help of the Chinese management team, the company has established an operations department to increase efficiency at the ports and railway terminals. A new health, security and safety department has been set up to ensure the company meets the highest safety standards.

CENTRAL ASIA

TAJIKISTAN

The self-proclaimed Islamic State claimed the killings of four foreign tourists who were run over by a car while cycling (NYT) and then stabbed. The Tajik government blamed the attack (RFE/RL) on a banned local Islamist party and said one assailant was trained in Iran.

Tajik or Russian” jets bomb Afghanistan following border skirmish
Strike confirms willingness to engage in cross-border operations to secure southern front. (eurasianet)