Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Exclusive: China's CEFC plans its own bank, as Rosneft stake bulks up tradeCEFC China Energy, a privately-owned conglomerate which is buying a stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft, plans to launch its own bank early next year in a latest step to build financial muscle along with its oil and gas assets, two company executives said. (reuters)

Good China-Russia ties benefit world stability

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China has further cemented the all-round strategic partnership between the two countries, which was already nothing short of substantial, thanks to their cooperation and exchanges in a wide range of areas. The meeting between Medvedev and Premier Li Keqiang on 31 October and their holding of the 22nd China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting on 1 November, the first after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, showcased the closeness of ties that have been forged through frequent high-level talks. (China Daily)

Serbia torn between EU attraction and China ambitions

Serbia has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. New highways are being built, more money is being spent on education and it is breaking new ground in the renewable energy, construction and engineering sectors. Serbia’s ability to attract substantial foreign investment, particularly from China, has been vital to this transformation. But this is now at risk. Securing inward investment is vital not just for growth and employment in the country, but to make the judicial, political and economic reforms necessary for Serbia’s accession to the Economic Union. China is bringing new technical expertise and innovation. Yet, rather than embrace a new vision for Europe, the European Union’s scepticism over China threatens to undermine future growth and stability. (FT)

How Competitive Is the Caucasus Train to China?

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway opens a new front in competition between the Caucasus club (Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia) and Russia; this time, for a prime spot in the Chinese-government-led effort to reinvent an Asia-Europe trade route, the Silk Road. (Eurasianet)

Construction goes smoothly on China-Russia gas pipeline

Construction of two underwater tunnels on the China-Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline is going smoothly, local government said on Thursday.Gas pipelines will be installed in the two tunnels, each 1,139 meters long, connecting Heihe in Heilongjiang Province, and Blagoveshchensk in Russia, the Heihe city government said in a statement. (Xinhua)

Romania targets regional energy power with mega investment plans

Romania has been seeking synergy between its energy strategy and the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) "16+1" cooperation framework, as Bucharest authorities are to host a "16+1" ministerial conference on energy co-operation on Wednesday. The conference, together with a three-day Energy Fair, will be a high-level networking occasion for governments, European Union and Energy Community officials and other relevant national and regional authorities interested and involved in the wider cooperation format with China, as well as a unique opportunity dedicated to companies operating in energy markets of Central and Eastern Europe and China. (Xinhua)

China Development Bank offers Russia transit-route financing
The Primorye-1 and Primorye-2 routes connect China’s northwest provinces with Far East Russian ports (Asia Times)

Quietly, China is reneging on promises to respect minority ethnic languages in its troubled northwest

Although Chinese law protects the rights of Uyghur and Kazakh communities to be educated in their own languages (Uyghur and Kazakh are related to each other and to Turkish; both are unrelated to Chinese), in a recent report translated into English by Luisetta Mudle for Rado Free Asia, Qiao Long and Yang Fan write that authorities in some areas of Xinjiang are enforcing a new directive that prohibits the use of any educational materials in Uyghur or Kazakh in schools. The directive specifies that “the use of all Uyghur and Kazakh-medium textbooks and teaching materials must be terminated across the board,” and orders that those materials “be put away in sealed storage.”Central Asia has been a hotbed of politically motivated language policy recently. Back in April, we reported on strict new regulations on the transportation of books to Tajikistan, which borders Xinjiang. Earlier this month, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev made waves when he announced the Kazakh language would cease to be written with the Cyrillic alphabet, and instead adopt the Latin. The government in Xinjiang this summer banned books by Saifuddin Azizi, a transnational revolutionary who traveled with Mao Zedong and served, for a term of more than twenty years, as the first chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (mhpbooks)

CENTRAL ASIA

Central Asia Is Seen as Breeding Ground of Militancy

(Nyt)

NYC attack: Is Central Asia a 'hotbed for extremism'?

One path of "radicalisation" Central Asians fall victim to is when they become migrant workers in Russia or Turkey, said Alisher Ilkhamov, a research associate at SOAS University of London and programme officer at Open Society Foundations.There, they endure low-paying and dangerous jobs, poor living conditions and isolation from their families and neighbourhoods, Ilkhamov told Al Jazeera. He also blamed the government of Uzbekistan for pursuing policies that force Uzbeks to seek work abroad. "If you look at the statistics of how many people applied for this [diversity] lottery over the past decade, the curve is going sharply up," Ilkhamov said, referring to the visa programme in which Saipov entered the US. "I think [this] indicates a very unhealthy situation from an economic point of view in Uzbekistan, so many people being forced to leave the country," he added. (aljazeera)

Today’s Uzbekistan and Manhattan’s Deadly Truck Attack

Sayfullo Saipov left Uzbekistan in 2010, aged 21 or 22, and entered the U.S. legally on a Diversity Visa Lottery Program. We cannot say with certainty yet when he was radicalised, but both U.S. and Uzbek authorities say it was in the U.S. Others, including Saipov’s Uzbek wife and another Uzbek man, are being questioned by the FBI. It is not clear whether Saipov had any direct contact with the Islamic State (ISIS) or other Central Asians linked to the group, but ISIS, after some delay, claimed responsibility for the attack on 3 November. There is no evidence of any connection to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a jihadist group that has operated for much of the last fifteen years in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (crisisgroup)

Suppressed at home, some Uzbeks turn to militancy abroad
Pushed by a lack of jobs and strict control of behaviour and dissent, millions of Uzbeks have emigrated in recent years. Hundreds of those joined ISIS in the Middle East, while others turned to religious extremism in their host countries.Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people in a truck attack in New York on Tuesday, appears to have taken the latter path, becoming radicalised after struggling with life in the West. (straitstimes)

Kazakhstan’s Secret Billionaires
A massive leak of documents reveals the hidden owners behind Meridian Capital, a major Kazakhstani investment and holding company with interests in oil and gas, real estate, mining, banks, aviation, transportation, and more.For over a decade, Kazakhstan’s most valuable resources – its oil and gas – have been in the hands of one man. Known for little else other than his managerial skill, the unassuming Sauat Mynbayev has negotiated deals on behalf of his government with oil industry executives from across the world. (occrp)

Tajikistan culls foreign-trained clerics over radicalisation

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan has announced that all imams who received their religious training abroad will be sacked, a cull the Central Asian country's governmenthopes will help prevent radicalisation. Around 20 mosque heads "have been brought to justice and convicted for involvement in extremist religious activities, the committee member said. (Afp)