Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Xinjiang to run more transnational freight trains in 2017
This year, 300 westbound transnational freight trains will run from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 80 more than last year. Two hundred will be bound for central Asian countries, 50 for Russia and 20 for Germany, Turkey and Iran, according to the regional economic and information technology commission. (Xinhua)

China's largest land port expects car import boom

Alataw Pass, China's largest land port, is expected to process more than 1,000 of imported finished automobiles this year, more than any other regular land port in China. The port, which started to import cars in September, has processed 283 parallel imported cars, including 138 in the first two months this year, according to Zhu Yunchao with Alataw Pass bonded area. (People)

China goes west: a ghost city in the sand comes to life
Mountains have been flattened and villages bulldozed to build Lanzhou New Area in China’s wild west. Four years ago Tom Phillips met empty streets and an eerie hush, but now he finds this improbable desert mirage finally filling up. (Guardian)

Welcome to Yiwu: China's testing ground for a multicultural city
Unlike Guangzhou’s African community – who have faced prejudice and hostility – Yiwu’s foreign residents enjoy an ‘unusual freedom of worship’, with the municipal government even consulting international traders on city business. (Guardian)

Chinese contingent participates in Pakistan Day military parade rehearsal 

A contingent of the guard of honour of the three services of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on 19 March participated in a rehearsal of Pakistan's 77th national day parade in the country's capital of Islamabad. The 90-member contingent has come to Pakistan to feature in the parade on the invitation of the Pakistani side. The final parade will be held on March 23 at Shakarparian Parade Ground in Islamabad. (Xinhua)

Pakistan's new-found coal addiction has potential to transform the country's economy 

In the dusty scrub of the Thar desert, Pakistan has begun to dig up one of the world's largest deposits of low-grade, brown, dirty coal to fuel new power stations that could revolutionize the country's economy. The project is one of the most expensive among an array of ambitious energy developments that China is helping the country to build as part of a $55 billion economic partnership. A $3.5 billion joint venture between the neighbours will extract coal to generate 1.3 gigawatts of electricity that will be sent across the country on a new $3 billion transmission network. (Economic Times)

Is China prepared for a new mantle in Central Asia amid the roll-out of its belt and road?
Raffaello Pantucci says China is slowly displacing Moscow as the regional guarantor, but Beijing does not appear to have fully considered the demands of its new role, especially in the context of its ambitious ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy (Scmp)

China says number of 'terror attacks' is down, but threat remains highThe number of violent attacks by "terrorist cells" in China has dropped due to increased security measures, state media reported on Tuesday, however it also cited experts as saying the level of attempted violence remains high. "Violent attacks involving or orchestrated by terrorist cells" dropped in 2016, the official English-language China Daily newspaper reported, citing data from the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (Reuters)

China Russia ties

After curbing arms transfers and cooling military ties more than a decade ago, China and Russia are increasing joint exercises and stepping up sales of advanced weaponry to counter the US, writes Bill Gertz. The most recent military maneuvers, in the South China Sea in September, coincided with an international court ruling that challenged Beijing’s vast maritime claim over 90% of the strategic waterway and was the first time the PRC has conducted naval exercises in the sea with a foreign military. (Asia Times)

China Shelves Central Asia Gas Plan

When gas started flowing through China's first 2,000-kilometer line (1,242-mile) from Turkmenistan in late 2009, Chinese investment and future gas demand were regarded in the region as virtually limitless. But with declines in global energy prices and China's lower economic growth rates, all that has changed. Despite environmental pressures and bullish projections, China's gas consumption growth has moderated since the start of the economic slowdown. In November, a researcher at state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) said the country could face a gas surplus of 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year by 2020 due to long-term contracts for imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline expansion plans, Platts reported. (Radio Free Asia)

Russia to open yuan clearing centre in Moscow

Russia will open a yuan clearing centre in Moscow on Wednesday, while the Russian Ministry of Finance plans to launch $1 billion worth of yuan bonds, according to Russia’s central bank. The bond issuance will take place “ideally in one or two months,” Dmitry Skobelkin, vice president of Russia’s central bank said Thursday at an opening ceremony of the central bank’s first overseas liaison office, which is located in Beijing. (Caixin)

China’s Silk Road Fund ‘seeking investment projects in Europe’

China’s Silk Road Fund is looking for investment projects in Europe, according to a senior bank official. The fund, which provides financing for China’s “One Belt, One Road” trade initiative to forge closer commercial ties with Asia and beyond, is seeking investment opportunities with a unit of the European Investment Bank, the European lender’s vice-president Jonathan Taylor said. “Cooperations between the European Investment Fund, a subsidiary of the EIB, and the Silk Road Fund are under discussion,” Taylor said at the start of a five-day trip to China. “Discussions between the EIF and the Silk Road Fund are centering on investment in Europe,” he told a press conference.
China pledged to contribute U$S40 billion to set up Silk Road Fund three years ago. (Scmp)

Blackwater founder to open bases in Xinjiang
Military company Blackwater's founder plans to build new bases in China, a move to support the One Belt and One Road initiative. Frontier Services Group (FSG), a company that helps businesses operating in frontier markets overcome complex security, logistics and operational challenges, is planning to built two operation bases in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Erik Prince, executive chairman of the firm, told the Global Times in mid-March. (Global Times)

CENTRAL ASIA

To Afghanistan Not Syria? Islamic State Diverts Tajik Fighters South

In February, the Iranian government extradited five members of the same family originating from Hamadoni district, in southern Tajikistan, back to their home country (Radio Ozodi, March 2). Abdulfayz Vazirov, 33, and his sister Mohira Salimova, 32, left Tajikistan for Russia in the summer of 2016 with her three children. Under the guidance of Abu Nureki, a Tajik fighter in Iraq, they traveled to Turkey. But they could not cross the border with Syria and made their way to Iran instead. Khojaev traveled directly to Iran from Novosibirsk, where he had been working as a mediator on a construction site. The family was detained near Zahedan, in southern Iran, while trying to cross the border into Afghanistan to join the Islamic State Khurasan Province (ISKP)—the local Afghani wing of the international terrorist organization. (Jamestown Foundation)