Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Transport: Yiwu-Madrid freight route boosts EU-China trade

Tow villagers display local wine to be transported by the Yiwu-Madrid freight train at a vineyard in Valladolid, Spain, 24 Sept. 2017. The Yiwu-Madrid freight route linking Zhejiang's Yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market for small consumer goods, with the European commodity center of Madrid through northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was launched in November of 2014. Xinhua (image: Xinhua) First trial freight train from China arrives in Slovakia: The first trial freight train arrived at the cargo port in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, on 13 November. The train's journey from the Chinese city of Dalian via Russia and Ukraine lasted 17 days. It is carrying goods worth over three million USD for customers throughout Central Europe. "It is a significant event for Slovakia. I think we'll not stay just in the trial operation, but we'll go further in this," said Arpad Ersek, Minister of Transport and Construction of Slovak Republic. (Xinhua)

China section of transcontinental expressway opens to traffic

The Chinese section of a transcontinental expressway project set to link western China with Western Europe has opened to traffic.A key part of the project, a 10-km section of road in the border city of Horgos in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which connects a quarantine area with the Lianyungang-Horgos expressway, came into use on Saturday, marking the across-the-board opening of the expressway in China. (China Daily)

How the Belt and Road Project Fills a Global Governance Vacuum
Flagship development initiative provides leadership in areas where the West has withdrawn, says professor of Shanghai’s new OBOR-focused institute. (sixthtone)

Security clampdown bites in China’s Xinjiang region

Centuries ago merchants criss-crossed the deserts of Xinjiang, a crucial link for Silk Road trade into Central Asia and beyond. Today the Chinese region is in a state of virtual lockdown after the introduction of a sweeping new security regime that has affected virtually every aspect of daily life. The clampdown is unsettling not only the majority-Muslim Uighurs who have long been discriminated against in China’s westernmost region — the Han Chinese on track to displace them as the dominant ethnic group are also beginning to worry. (FT)

Has scrapped US$2.5 billion Nepal hydro dam deal with Chinese state firm hurt Beijing’s Himalayan ambitions?
Nepal has scrapped a US$2.5 billion (S$3.4 billion) deal with China Gezhouba Group Corporation to build the country's biggest hydropower plant, citing lapses in the award process, the energy minister said."The cabinet has cancelled the irregular ... agreement with Gezhouba Group to build the Budhi Gandaki hydroelectric project," Energy Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the country's deputy prime minister, said on Monday (Nov 13) in a twitter post in Nepali after a cabinet meeting. He did not give further details. (straitstimes)

How Nepal’s cancelled dam scheme highlights country’s big debate: ally with India or China?

The question of whether Nepal should go ahead with plans to build a dam with a Chinese firm has become entwined in the wider debate about whether the country should align itself with India or China. (Scmp)


Pakistan pulls plug on dam deal over China’s ‘too strict’ conditions in latest blow to Belt and Road plans

Pakistan has decided to cancel a US$14 billion infrastructure agreement with China because it could not accept the hyper strict conditions, local media reported, in another setback to Beijing’s overseas ambitions. (scmp)


Uyghur Migrant Life in the City During the “People’s War”

This is the first of a two-part series that first appeared in Youth Circulations . The series written by Darren Byler, with photographers Nicola Zolin and Eleanor Moseman, documents how the bodies of migrants are marked, just as their communities are erased, in the often unconsidered spaces of China's "People's War on Terror." (art of life in chinese central asia)



CENTRAL ASIA

IMF advises Turkmenistan to continue reducing government spending

A representatives of the IMF stated that the economy of Turkmenistan is gradually adapting to the existence of lower prices for oil and natural gas. However, they noted that it needs to implement further measures for "macro-economic adjustment." (Ferghana News)

When An Anticorruption Campaign Isn't About Fighting Corruption

Anticorruption campaigns in Central Asia, and investigations into corruption there in general, are fascinating to observe.They are so seldom about actually fighting corruption.Corruption is a huge problem in Central Asia and authorities have regularly declared new battles against it. (Rferl)

Leaks Unveil Kazakh Officials with Offshore Links
The Paradise Papers leak shows that Sauat Mynbayev, a key in Kazakhstan’s energy sector, could have conspired to hide millions in offshore havens. (The Diplomat)

Russia Tacitly Entices Uzbekistan With Benefits of EEU, CSTO Membership
Since President Shavkat Mirziyaev’s state visit to Moscow in April 2017, bilateral relations between his country of Uzbekistan and Russia have been steadily expanding. And the frequency of subsequent bilateral exchanges suggests that this trend will most likely continue with the full support of both governments (RIA Novosti, November 2). This “new phase in Uzbek-Russian relations” was cemented during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s recent official trip to Uzbekistan, on November 2–3. Between January and August 2017, 18.5 percent of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade turnover was with Russia. The latter country has regained its status as Uzbekistan’s largest trading partner, which was briefly lost to China in the recent past (Interfax, November 2). (Jametown foundation)

Controversial Railway Project Consolidates China’s Foothold in Central Asia

On November 5, a cargo train from Kokshetau, North Kazakhstan, carrying 30 containers of wheat, arrived in the Turkish harbor city of Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast. What made this event so notable was that this was the first train from Kazakhstan to use the new 826-kilometer-long Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, inaugurated in the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, on October 30. The ceremony in Kokshetau was attended by the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan, Recep Tayip Erdoğan and Ilham Aliyev, respectively. These heads of state were also accompanied by the prime ministers of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia— Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Abdulla Aripov and Giorgi Kvirikashvili (Inform.kz, November 5). (jamestown)

Majlis Podcast: People Continue To Disappear In Turkmenistan

In this latest session of the Majlis, we revisit the topic of rights abuses in Turkmenistan. Specifically, we'll be looking at the plight of those who have been imprisoned and not been heard from since. International rights groups Crude Accountability and Human Rights Watch are cosponsors of a campaign called Prove They Are Alive, which calls on authorities in Turkmenistan to show that people kept in prisons are still alive and in good health. (rferl)