Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Hyperloop on the Silk Road

The northeastern Chinese city of Hunchun is like many of the country’s smaller boomtowns, continually fed by an influx of rural jobseekers looking for factory work. China is building a new six billion dollar passenger high-speed rail line to connect Hunchun with the provincial capital of Jilin to the east. That said, Hunchun is a bit off the beaten path, tucked into a nook between the borders with Russia and North Korea. Geography has enabled Hunchun to become the largest logistics terminal in the region, preparing textiles, electronics, grain, and automobiles for export. Hunchun could become an even more influential export hub if it had better access to the Pacific. Currently, it is cut off from the coast by rugged mountains and Russia’s Primorsky Krai region to the west and south. In winter months, roads are often impassable. China would like to see Hunchun connect to the sea and Russian economic planners have long had their eyes on developing better, faster links between China’s interior and Russia’s deep water, ice-free ports along the coast south of Vladivostok. (Reconasia)

Can China solve Central Asia’s impending water crisis?
China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative has become a major foreign policy priority. The land-based Silk Road Economic Belt aims to expand China’s economic connections and political influence across much of Eurasia through vast infrastructure and investment schemes, potentially involving over 40 countries. But reviving the ancient Silk Road will not be easy. Water conflicts, as elsewhere, are top on the list of potential challenges. (East Asia Forum)

2/3 of Nepal's total FDI in 1st half of current fiscal year (beginning mid-July '16) is from China
Nepal received more than two thirds of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) pledgesfrom China during the first half of the current fiscal year that began in mid-July, accordingto data from Nepal's Department of Industries (DoI). Pradeep Kumar Koirala, director general of DoI told Xinhua that Chinese investors arelargely seen interested in tourism, infrastructure and restaurant businesses in Nepal.(Xinhua)

In Turkey, US Loss Is China's Gain
With relations with the United States in tatters, the ‘Eurasianers’ in Turkey look to accelerate ties with China. (The Diplomat)

China plans to destroy ancient Buddhist city to get copper bonanza
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years.According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. (SCMP)

Amid Beijing's "Silk Road" splurge, Chinese firms eye Pakistan
Chinese companies are in talks to snap up more businesses and land in Pakistan after sealing two major deals in recent months, a sign of deepening ties after Beijing vowed to plough $57 billion into a new trade route across the South Asian nation. A dozen executives from some of Pakistan's biggest firms told Reuters that Chinese companies were looking mainly at the cement, steel, energy and textile sectors, the backbone of Pakistan's $270 billion economy. (Reuters)

China plans to destroy ancient Buddhist city to get copper bonanza
Two Chinese state-owned mining companies plan to destroy an ancient Buddhist city in Afghanistan in order to get the copper underneath it, according to a new documentary. According to the film Saving Mes Aynak, Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper are in the initial stages of building an open-pit copper mine 40km southeast of Kabul. The location is home to a walled Buddhist city that dates back 5,000 years. According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the site is also home to the world’s second-largest copper deposit. China is an importer of copper and a major global refiner of the industrial metal. SCMP

CENTRAL ASIA

Cash-strapped Mongolia is now selling jewellery and horses to pay debt
Post 
Mongolia is out of cash, but it has big bills to pay. Bills worth US$580 million, in fact. So citizens are scrounging up cash, and donating money, jewellery, and even horses to the government to help it cling on long enough for an international bailout. The country has a US$580 million bond payment due in March. So the government is negotiating a bailout with China and the International Monetary Fund amid a historic economic crisis, but it may not come in time.(Reuters)

Global Journalist: Turkmenistan's Silent Election
Most people outside of Central Asia know little about the gas-rich desert nation of Turkmenistan.
The former Soviet Republic has virtually no independent media and just a handful of bookstores. Foreign journalists and scholars are rarely granted visas to visit.So it's no surprise that presidential elections this month in a state sometimes compared to North Korea are little more than a show staged to buttress President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov. On this edition of Global Journalist, a look at one of the world's most isolated countries and the cult of personality built around its leader. (Global Journalist)

Would The Real Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov Please Stand Up?

Turkmenistan is conducting a presidential election on February 12. Eight competitors are running against the incumbent, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. But if he looks like Berdymukhammedov, the person who's been hitting the campaign trail in the last week or so doesn’t much act like Berdymukhammedov. First, let's take a brief look at the eight candidates in the race. (That’s a record for a Turkmen presidential election.) It's probably one of the only times you’ll ever hear about these folks. (RFE)

Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Preventing Islamic risk on ‘Belt and Road’

A few years ago, I predicted that for the next 10 to 20 years, economic recession will worsen and cause major social instability in emerging countries. Africa, Latin America and Middle East Islamic countries will be the prime source of this upheaval and turmoil. For nearly three years, the Ukrainian crisis, the emergence of the Islamic State, the Yemen civil war and 2016 Turkish coup attempt have proved my prediction. In the next 10 to 20 years, "Islamic risk" will be one of the world's biggest political risks. For China's "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) initiative, Islamic risk is also a prominent political danger. According to the broadest definition, OBOR involves 64 countries, 33 of which are Muslim countries, accounting for more than half the total. GlobalTimes

Chinese Capitalism and the New Silk Roads

The hottest topic now regarding China’s economic statecraft and foreign economic policy is undoubtedly the so-called “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative, or the New Silk Road initiative. Announced by the Chinese central state in late 2013, the initiative has soon become the “umbrella project” for China’s new economic statecraft, under which almost all other major international policies are supposed to be framed. Consisting of the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, OBOR is also widely interpreted by the outside world as the symbol of geopolitical ambition of a new rising hegemon.Since most of the countries along the New Silk Roads are largely isolated from the previous rounds of globalization or economic integration led primarily by the US (e.g. the Central Asian countries), China’s new initiatives provide plans to integrate these economies in a process where China will play a leading role through an open and equal manner, thus heralding new types of world socialist solidarity.(Aspen Institute)

Chinese Consortium Buys 40% Stake in Pakistan Stock Exchange
The Karachi-based Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has sold 40% strategic shares to a Chinese consortium at a deal valued at $85 million, Dawn reported on Friday.The Chinese consortium comprises three Chinese exchanges — China Financial Futures Exchange Company Limited (lead bidder), Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange.Together they will take up 30% of the strategic stock while two local financial institutions — Pak-China Investment Company Limited and Habib Bank Limited — will pick up 5% each, the maximum permitted to a single institution under the regulations, the newspaper said.

For Uighur exiles, Kashmir is heavenA second and third generation of Uighurs far removed from their Chinese homeland find home in Jammu and Kashmir. (Al Jazeera)

Under the Guise of Public Safety, China Demolishes Thousands of Mosques
The Chinese government has destroyed thousands of mosques over the past three months in the restive Xinjiang region in Beijing’s latest attempt to “rectify” the largely Muslim population there, RFA’s Uyghur Service has learned.Under the “Mosque Rectification” campaign launched by the Chinese Central Ethnic-Religious Affairs Department and overseen by the local police, the mosques were demolished as a way to sort out dilapidated buildings that allegedly posed a safety threat for worshippers in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, officials told RFA. (Radio Free Asia)

Beijing's Eyes and Ears Grow Sharper in Xinjiang
The troubled region of Xinjiang, in China’s northwest, has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last couple of months. Thousands of local police stations have cropped up across the region and tens of thousands of policemen have been recruited to man them around the clock. These structures, known as convenience police stations, are part of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s latest effort to stem the religious and ethnic violence that has long marred Xinjiang. Since the deadly Urumqi riots in 2009, in which the Uyghur minority clashed violently with ethnic Hans, Chinese authorities have ratcheted up control through a massive expansion of its security apparatuses. And yet the violence continued, with market bombings, suicide attacks, and mass stabbings that have left hundreds of Han and Uyghur civilians dead over the past decade. (Foreign Affairs)

Russia to issue federal loan bonds in BRICS, SCO currencies
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed on Monday an order approving the issuance of federal loan bonds known as OFZ in the currencies of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries. (Xinhua)

Chinese train maker to supply high-speed trains to Czech Republic, marking its first deal in EU
A Chinese train maker has signed a deal to sell multiple unittrains to the Czech Republic, the first such deal with an EU member. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. signed a deal with Czech rail operator Leo Express tosell three electric multiple units (EMUs) for 20 million euros (21 million U.S. dollars) onMonday.(People's Daily)

AIIB approves 600 mln USD loan for Azerbaijan
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a loan of 600 million U.S. dollars, its largest so far, to finance an energy project in Azerbaijan. (Xinhua)

Turkey, China realize first currency swap transaction in a move to use national currency in foreign trade
Pesident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's proposal to use the national currency in foreign trade has gained momentum following the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey's (TCMB) first currency swap transaction with the People's Bank of China (PBOC). Erdoğan's proposal, which has been on the agenda for a long time, has garnered support from all segments of the society, as the first currency exchange transaction between the central bank and the PBOC took place on Nov. 30, 2016. (Daily Sabah)

Bridge to link China and Russia

AFTER 28 years of talks between China and Russia, construction has finally started on a modern highway bridge connecting China and Russia across the Heilongjiang River, the first between the two countries. The main span of the bridge is 1,283 meters and links Heihe to the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk. "The bridge is an important international link, and part of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor". Costing 2.5 billion yuan (about 360 million U.S. dollars), the bridge will open in October 2019. (Shanghai Daily)


CENTRAL ASIA

Cocoon of Days. Walking to the last silk-making town in Uzbekistan
A long time ago—the story goes—the Chinese Princess Lei Zu, age 14, was sipping tea in her royal garden when a cocoon dropped from a tree into her teacup. Annoyed, she fished it out. But the hot tea had begun to unravel a fiber from the cocoon. Lei Zu peered at the loose filament. She pinched between her damp fingers a thread that would change the world: silk. (National Geographic)

India, Kyrgyzstan eye creation of joint military training center in Kyrgyzstan: Modi(Akipress)

Uzbekistan Delegation Heads to Tajikistan for Trade Powwow
The yawning, decades-long divide between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan will get that little bit narrower next week when a senior Uzbek delegation travels to Dushanbe for talks on trade and economic cooperation. The delegation will travel to Tajikistan on December 26 and be led by Uzbek deputy prime minister Rustam Azimov, whose recent removal as finance minister appears for now to signal his transition to a role as the lead on development of Uzbekistan’s external economic ties. (Eurasianet)

Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Chinese Ship Opens New Trade Route Via Pakistani Port
Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders traveled to the country's southwest on Sunday to open a new international trade route by seeing off a Chinese ship that's exporting goods to the Middle East and Africa from the newly built Gwadar port. The first convoy of Chinese trucks carrying goods for sale abroad has arrived in Pakistan amid tight security using a road linking Gwadar to China's northwestern Xinjiang region, the government said in a statement. (Bloomberg)

CPEC takes a step forward as violence surges in Balochistan
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project reached an important milestone onNovember 13 when cargo from China that was trucked down via the corridor was loaded on to ships at Gwadar port. The ships have since headed off to markets in West Asia and AfricaThis is the first time that trade activity has taken place through CPEC. On Saturday, even as three convoys of trucks converged at the Baloch capital of Quetta en route to Gwadar port, a powerful bomb blast ripped through a Sufi shrine in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, killing at least 52 people and injuring 102 others. The explosion at the Shah Noorani shrine is believed to be the handiwork of the Islamic State (IS) group, which has claimed responsibility for the attack.(Asia Times)

What Does China’s One Belt, One Road Project Mean For Central Asia?

China’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project aims to connect the world like never before, using land and sea routes to form trade links across Asia and Europe and down to Africa. It’s an extremely ambitious project that will take many years to realize but already OBOR has many people excited about the economic possibilities to come. Among the billions of people who could benefit immensely from OBOR are the roughly 65 million residents of Central Asia. But being part of OBOR is not necessarily a guarantee for a better future. In February this year, the first cargo train from China arrived in Iran after passing through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan along new railways in the latter two countries. In September, the first train from China to Afghanistan arrived after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.(Rfl)

Iran inks China military pact while mulling $10 billion Russian arms deal

In another move to bolster the Islamic Republic's military apparatus on Monday, Iran and China signed a deal to enhance cooperation between the two nations. The military agreement between Tehran and Beijing entails increased bilateral training coordination and closer alignment on what the Iranian regime sees as regional security issues. The move represents an “upgrade in long-term military and defense cooperation with China,” Iran's Tasnim New quoted Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan as saying in Tehran alongside his Chinese counterpart, General Chang Wanquan. (The Jerusalem Post)

China shifts gears on building ties with international bodies

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on 15 November concluded its week-long Eurasian trip with a series of proposals to promote regional cooperation between China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries as well as among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Li's proposals mark China's efforts to inject new impetus into regional cooperation, showing the importance China attaches to the role of regional mechanisms as well as its determination to enhance cooperation and safeguard regional peace and stability. Xinhua

The great bargain between Russia and China for Central Asia

With growing domestic economic stagnation in Russia, in the long-term China could still challenge Moscow’s monopoly as a main security guarantor and may gradually increase direct engagement with Central Asian states in military and security spheres. Consequently, this could lead towards a more assertive Chinese policy, where Beijing will frame its own security agenda in the region, rather than following Moscow’s steps. This is particularly important as Chinese investment and capital in the region increases, indicating that China will need to protect its interests.(China in Eurasia)

Chinese language school opens in Kyrgyz capital

A Chinese language school named "Bilim Export" founded by Kyrgyz people who were educated in China has opened here in Kyrgyzstan's capital, one of the founders and the director of the school Daniar Abdykadyrov told Xinhua on 16 November. "I studied in China for two years to receive my master's degree and after graduation, for three years I worked at the same university," Abdykadyrov said. "Therefore I always wanted to open a local Chinese school in which Kyrgyz students can receive quality education like in China," he said. Xinhua

China and CEE Countries Push for Broader Economic Cooperation in Riga

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang’s historic visit to Riga, Latvia, on November 4, marked the opening of a new chapter in relations between Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). During his three-day visit, Li met together with the heads of governments of 16 CEE countries. The summit resulted in a string of far-reaching economic agreements. Notably, officials signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the Silk Road economic zone and the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road initiative. MoUs were also signed regarding cooperation between Chinese and CEE think tanks, on the promotion of cooperation in the field of tourism, as well as cooperation between small- and medium-sized enterprises (Lsm.lv, November 5). (Jamestown Foundation)

Fed up with EU, Erdogan says Turkey could join Shanghai bloc
President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Sunday as saying that Turkey did not need to join the European Union "at all costs" and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations. NATO member Turkey's prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever after 11 years of negotiations. European leaders have been critical of its record on democratic freedoms, while Ankara has grown increasingly exasperated by what it sees as Western condescension. (Reuters)


China says would consider Turkey membership of security bloc
China is willing to consider any application from NATO-member Turkey to join a Russian and Chinese-led security bloc, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country could join. (Reuters)

Russia, China Would Like to See Turkey in SCO if It Freezes Links With NATO

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey could become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian security and economic bloc led by Russia and China, but Dr. Emre Ersen told Radio Sputnik that Ankara will firstly have to minimize its relations with NATO to be considered. (Sputnik)

Tianjin FTZ launches China-Europe freight train
A freight train departed a pilot economic zone in the northern coastal city of Tianjin for the first time Monday morning. Loaded with 104 containers of construction materials, it is the first China-Europe freight train to leave the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), and is set to arrive in Minsk, capital of Belarus, around December 4. (Xinhua)