Xinjiang shows Belt, Road needs specifics
Recent data in Xinjiang suggest that trade has not improved significantly. In the first quarter of the year, trade in Xinjiang was $4.84 billion, according to the Urumqi Customs. Though it represented a 65.6 percent gain year-on-year, it was far less than the figure of $5.24 billion in the same period of 2013, when the initiative began. The China-Europe freight trains have been running for a while, but they are not at the frequency local officials envisioned. They said that reflects low domestic and foreign demand for goods. And further market integration along the Belt and Road route is needed to spur demand, they added. (Global Times)
Uyghurs Studying Abroad Ordered Back to Xinjiang Under Threat to Families
Uyghur students enrolled in schools outside China are being ordered by Chinese authorities to return to their hometowns by May 20, with family members in some cases held hostage to force their return, sources in Xinjiang and in Egypt say.Launched at the end of January by authorities across the Xinjiang region, the campaign has frightened targeted students, some of whom have disappeared or been jailed after coming back, a Uyghur studying at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University told RFA’s Uyghur Service.(Rfa)
Party Sets Up Special Bureau for Xinjiang
The Chinese Communist Party has established a new bureau for Xinjiang within its United Front Work Department to streamline policy coordination and provide strategic regional advice to the country’s leaders. The bureau’s creation comes amid President Xi Jinping’s call for the building of a “great wall of iron” to safeguard stability in the autonomous territory. (China Digital Times)
Syria says up to 5,000 Chinese Uygurs are fighting with rebels
Up to 5,000 ethnic Uygurs from China’s far western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said on Monday, adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about the development. (SCMP)
Who will pay for China’s new Silk Road?
Beijing is backing a host of financial institutions to help fund its ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative”
(Scmp)
Chinese firms to make $120bn-$130bn investment annually in next five years
Uyghurs Studying Abroad Ordered Back to Xinjiang Under Threat to Families
Uyghur students enrolled in schools outside China are being ordered by Chinese authorities to return to their hometowns by May 20, with family members in some cases held hostage to force their return, sources in Xinjiang and in Egypt say.Launched at the end of January by authorities across the Xinjiang region, the campaign has frightened targeted students, some of whom have disappeared or been jailed after coming back, a Uyghur studying at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University told RFA’s Uyghur Service.(Rfa)
Party Sets Up Special Bureau for Xinjiang
The Chinese Communist Party has established a new bureau for Xinjiang within its United Front Work Department to streamline policy coordination and provide strategic regional advice to the country’s leaders. The bureau’s creation comes amid President Xi Jinping’s call for the building of a “great wall of iron” to safeguard stability in the autonomous territory. (China Digital Times)
Syria says up to 5,000 Chinese Uygurs are fighting with rebels
Up to 5,000 ethnic Uygurs from China’s far western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said on Monday, adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about the development. (SCMP)
Who will pay for China’s new Silk Road?
Beijing is backing a host of financial institutions to help fund its ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative”
(Scmp)
Chinese firms to make $120bn-$130bn investment annually in next five years
In the next five years, Chinese companies will invest $120 billion to $130 billion annuallyon overseas projects, Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of National Development and ReformCommission (NDRC), predicted on Friday. A majority of the investment will be allotted to countries and regions along the Belt andRoad, Ning said at a press conference held in Beijing.In the four years since the initiative was proposed by China in 2013, China has investedmore than $60 billion in the Belt and Road regions. (People's Daily)
China aims to triple rail freight with Europe by 2020
China aims to nearly triple rail freight shipments to and from Europe by 2020, an international logistics executive here told The Nikkei, making the transport link a backbone of economic growth in the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.The National Development and Reform Commission, which steers economic policy, aims to run 5,000 freight trains between China and Europe in 2020, up from 1,800 in 2016. (Nikkei)
Cash crunch on China’s new Silk Road
China is urgently seeking support from international lenders to close a yawning financing gap for projects under its “Belt and Road Initiative”, a top official said.The remarks from Yi Gang, vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China, come just days ahead of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Sunday and Monday. Leaders from 29 countries and regions will gather in Beijing to learn more about the blueprint for China’s trade scheme.Infrastructure and other key projects in belt and road countries had “strong demand for financing”, and support from the global market was “desperately needed”, Yi said in an interview with People’s Daily yesterday. Policy banks are making progress in doling out loans, but commercial banks are less active.”Many infrastructure projects were long-term and required large amounts of investment, so a system of “policy banks, commercial lenders and international development institutions” was needed to ensure their financial sustainability, Pan said. (Scmp)
China is urgently seeking support from international lenders to close a yawning financing gap for projects under its “Belt and Road Initiative”, a top official said.The remarks from Yi Gang, vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China, come just days ahead of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Sunday and Monday. Leaders from 29 countries and regions will gather in Beijing to learn more about the blueprint for China’s trade scheme.Infrastructure and other key projects in belt and road countries had “strong demand for financing”, and support from the global market was “desperately needed”, Yi said in an interview with People’s Daily yesterday. Policy banks are making progress in doling out loans, but commercial banks are less active.”Many infrastructure projects were long-term and required large amounts of investment, so a system of “policy banks, commercial lenders and international development institutions” was needed to ensure their financial sustainability, Pan said. (Scmp)
Western partners wanted on China’s Silk Road
Beijing is seeking to lure more multinational companies and agencies to participate in its “Belt and Road Initiative”, in an attempt to reduce risks borne by its state companies. Xiao Yaqing, head of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, told a press conference on Monday that China’s building of a new Silk Road would be “open and inclusive”, and try to minimise risks by collaborating with the world’s leading companies and international organisations. (Scmp)
The Central Station Of The New Silk Road Has Emerged
Khorgos Gateway, a major new dry port that’s rising up from the desert in Kazakhstan’s eastern borderlands, has just taken the next step in the process of developing into the great crossroads of nations that it has been posited to become — a central station along a new Silk Road.Fueled by the rapidly emerging China-Europe rail network, the Khorgos dream is grandiose but its origins are rooted in pragmatism. The width of train tracks are different in China than in the post-Soviet realm, so trains need to stop and relay their cargo at the border. This simple logistical event is what gave rise to what is rapidly becoming an entirely new, multifaceted economic ecosystem in what was nothing but sand dunes just five years before on the Kazakh / China border. (Forbes)
For one Chinese city, new 'Silk Road' leaves old problems unsolved
In 2015, the official Xinhua news agency ran stories about how Hunchun was accelerating its "OBOR" plans, and early in 2016, China's cabinet released a list of Chinese cities included in "OBOR": Hunchun was on the map. The fact that the list came about slowly, and that some cities felt moved to lobby to be included, underlines how the pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping is as amorphous as it is ambitious. (Reuters)
China says Silk Road plan is not tied to presidency
Asked what guarantee the world had that the initiative would go on after Xi's second term, Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming told a news briefing that its vitality lay in countries' hopes for development and not in the idea of "who proposed it or what term in office there is later". "The Belt and Road initiative was proposed by President Xi in 2013, but this initiative is not an individual proposal, or merely left at a proposal level. Rather it is an initiative that has been widely received by the whole world. It is jointly owned by everyone," Qian said. (Reuters)
China says Silk Road plan is not tied to presidency
Asked what guarantee the world had that the initiative would go on after Xi's second term, Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming told a news briefing that its vitality lay in countries' hopes for development and not in the idea of "who proposed it or what term in office there is later". "The Belt and Road initiative was proposed by President Xi in 2013, but this initiative is not an individual proposal, or merely left at a proposal level. Rather it is an initiative that has been widely received by the whole world. It is jointly owned by everyone," Qian said. (Reuters)
A train pulling 45 containers set off from Panjin Port, northeast China's Liaoning Province on Wednesday, joining China-Europe freight trains which have been booming in recent years. The 16-day journey will see the train leave China through Erenhot in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Mongolia and on to Russia before reaching Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The new service is expected to facilitate trade and opportunities along the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor.(China Plus)
Xi Jinping’s Silk Road is under threat from one-way traffic
Tajik security services have detained the eldest son of a former elite police force commander who defected to Islamic State two years ago, suspecting that the young man was going to join his father, security sources said on Wednesday.The United States last August offered up to $3 million for information about Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, whom it trained in counter-terrorism before he joined Islamic State.Washington has described Khalimov as "a key leader" of Islamic State, which has seized parts of Syria and Iran and staged or inspired deadly militant attacks around the world. (Reuters)
China targets crimes related to "silk road" rail lines
China's top procuratorate has declared war against crimes related to international freight and passenger railway services along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Smuggling and human trafficking by international trains and crimes endangering railway safety were highlighted in a guideline issued by the railway division of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on 9 May. (GlobalTimes)
Overcapacity in industries such as steel is far too big for neighbouring markets to absorb more than a fraction of it; products such as cement and glass cannot be economically exported over any great distance; and in unstable, high-risk markets such as Pakistan and the Central Asian republics, there is a danger that loans will turn sour and projects will fail. The planned rail link between central China and Europe, which is undergoing trials, highlights the challenges: five trains full of cargo leave Chongqing for Germany every week, but only one full train returns. Yet trade must flow in both directions to make the new trading routes both economically viable and politically acceptable to the foreign countries through which it will pass.So while European business supports the One Belt and One Road vision, companies are worried that in the next decade the initiative will instead be remembered as “One Belt and One Trap”: a waste of resources that depends too heavily on lumbering and inefficient state-owned enterprises, when nimble Chinese entrepreneurs and EU private capital would do a far better job. (FT)
Central SOEs contribute to B&R initiative
Lessons for China in failed US Silk Road initiative
The contrast between Beijing’s and Washington’s support for a revitalised Silk Road could not be clearer.This month’s Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, a gathering of existing and potential stakeholders in China’s trade development initiative, will welcome national leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Indonesia’s Joko Widodo to Beijing.Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, already in office for more than 100 days, has yet to appoint an ambassador to Afghanistan, which sits at the centre of a Silk Road initiative the US Department of State began promoting in 2011.Compared with China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, Washington’s plan was underfunded and under-resourced after then secretary of state Hillary Clinton formally proposed it in 2011, observers say. (Scmp)
Central government State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have played a significant role in pushing the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, with their overseas investment growing at an average annual rate of 15 percent in recent years, Xiao Yaqing, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), told a press conference in Beijing on Monday. Their overseas investment will be deepened and expanded as infrastructure construction is
gradually carried out in countries and regions along the Belt and Road route, he said. But Xiao said that investment may not increase every year, as central SOEs' expansion along the Belt and Road route is market-oriented and complies with the companies' strategic needs. (Global Times)
Is there still hope for China, Afghanistan’s long-stalled US$3 billion copper mining deal?
Afghanistan’s top envoy still striving for a win-win to develop the copper mine a decade after billion-dollar deal was signed (Scmp)
China-Kazakhstan capacity cooperation on fast track: official
gradually carried out in countries and regions along the Belt and Road route, he said. But Xiao said that investment may not increase every year, as central SOEs' expansion along the Belt and Road route is market-oriented and complies with the companies' strategic needs. (Global Times)
Is there still hope for China, Afghanistan’s long-stalled US$3 billion copper mining deal?
Afghanistan’s top envoy still striving for a win-win to develop the copper mine a decade after billion-dollar deal was signed (Scmp)
China-Kazakhstan capacity cooperation on fast track: official
Industrial capacity cooperation between China and Kazakhstan has grown rapidly in the past few years and yielded rich results under the Belt and Road Initiative, an official said Friday.The two governments have signed a framework agreement for capacity cooperation and held 12 dialogues on the matter, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference.China and Kazakhstan have signed major cooperation projects worth 27 billion U.S. dollars, set up a 2-billion-dollar bilateral capacity cooperation fund and earmarked loans of 15 billion dollars for the same purpose, Ning said. Currently, 34 projects, including copper mining, electrolytic aluminum and cement plants, have been completed and put into production in Kazakhstan. Another 43 projects are under construction. (Xinhua)
Key stops on China's new Silk Road
Key stops on China's new Silk Road
Beijing has deployed moves from a familiar playbook to try and spur economic growth: capital and infrastructure investment, and preferential policies to try to make Horgos a more attractive offshore yuan settlement centre than even Shenzhen or Shanghai.But it needs to look at how it can help Central Asian countries build up their infrastructure, said Professor Yang Yiyong, director of the Macroeconomics Institute at the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planning authority. "We should be taking a leaf from Singapore's book, setting up cooperation offices in each of the five Central Asian countries," he said at a Belt and Road forum. (Strait Times)
HIGHWAY TO SELL: HOW $55B TRADE CORRIDOR REKINDLED CHINA-PAKISTAN LOVE AFFAIR
A US$55 billion programme to link the routes of China’s Belt and Road plan through Pakistan has revived a relationship that began with the Karakorum Highway – even if critics blame it for mischief in Kashmir. (Scmp)
Tajikistan: Forces Reportedly Scrambled as Clashes Intensify on Afghan Border
Conflicting reports are emerging about the fighting unfolding in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, in an area close to Tajikistan’s border, but it is becoming steadily clear that Dushanbe is now spooked.Further to the west, in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, local politicians have said Taliban fighters overran yet another district sharing a border with Tajikistan, Qala-e-Zal. Local people in the Tajik frontier town of Ishkashim in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region have reported that fighter jets patroled the area on May 5-6. The jets would beyond almost all certainty be from the Russian armed forces stationed in the country. (Eurasianet)
Tajikistan detains son of defector to Islamic State: security sources
HIGHWAY TO SELL: HOW $55B TRADE CORRIDOR REKINDLED CHINA-PAKISTAN LOVE AFFAIR
A US$55 billion programme to link the routes of China’s Belt and Road plan through Pakistan has revived a relationship that began with the Karakorum Highway – even if critics blame it for mischief in Kashmir. (Scmp)
CENTRAL ASIA
Tajikistan: Forces Reportedly Scrambled as Clashes Intensify on Afghan Border
Conflicting reports are emerging about the fighting unfolding in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, in an area close to Tajikistan’s border, but it is becoming steadily clear that Dushanbe is now spooked.Further to the west, in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, local politicians have said Taliban fighters overran yet another district sharing a border with Tajikistan, Qala-e-Zal. Local people in the Tajik frontier town of Ishkashim in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region have reported that fighter jets patroled the area on May 5-6. The jets would beyond almost all certainty be from the Russian armed forces stationed in the country. (Eurasianet)
Tajikistan detains son of defector to Islamic State: security sources
The annual anniversary of Victory Day on May 9, 1945 (Moscow time), which marked the surrender of Nazi Germany, should have been the least controversial of public holidays throughout the former Soviet Union. Yet, the use of World War II symbolism by the Russian authorities as a means to stir up patriotic feelings, increasingly in opposition to the “decadent” West, does not sit well with everyone. In neighboring Kazakhstan, which remains Russia’s closest trade and military partner, the government has been trying for years to apply a new varnish to its Victory Day celebrations. (Jamestown Foundation)
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