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Flagship development initiative provides leadership in areas where the West has withdrawn, says professor of Shanghai’s new OBOR-focused institute.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)

Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

General Electric, China's Silk Road Fund to launch energy investment platform

General Electric Co and a Chinese state fund set up for the Belt and Road trade initiative plan to jointly establish an energy infrastructure investment platform, China’s government said. The announcement came on the sidelines of a state visit to Beijing by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been looking to rev up U.S.-China trade. “The two sides will jointly invest in electric power grids, new energy and oil and gas, in countries and regions along the Belt and Road,” SAFE said. (Reuters)

Syria-China diplomatic relations

As the Syrian government regains control over vast swaths of territory from ISIS and with de-escalation zones now established in four areas across the country, China’s cautious economic approach towards Syria seems to be slowly, but decisively, changing, Fadi Esber writes. The reconstruction of Syria will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and China wants its share of the pie. In July, Beijing announced a US$2 billion dollar plan to build an industrial park in Syria for 150 Chinese companies, although few details about the project were revealed. Then, in August, Chinese companies participated in the 59th Damascus International Fair. That was preceded by a Syria Day Expo organized by the Syrian embassy in Beijing, with hundreds of Chinese specialists in attendance. More revealing, however, about China’s understanding of the situation on the ground – and its intentions to carve out a significant Chinese role in post-conflict Syria – was a recent visit by the Chinese ambassador in Syria to Manin, a small town just north of Damascus. (Asia Times)

Russia, China discuss plans for Harbin-Vladivostok express link
The 380 kilometer project is being costed at US$19 billion. One expert warns, however, that western sanctions Russia may scupper its implementation (atimes)

Opinion: China can cope with any bumps along the way on ‘Belt and Road’
Beijing has long experience dealing with countries involved in its massive trade initiative and the idea that it’s not prepared for problems is misleading, writes Raffaello Pantucci (scmp)
Families of Uyghur Police Officers Among Those Detained in Xinjiang’s KashgarFamily members of ethnic Uyghur security personnel in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, who authorities had previously considered “off limits,” are among those now being detained as part of “stability” measures the officers have been tasked with enforcing, according to sources. (RFA)

China's Xinjiang region closed 112 coal mines by end-October
China's Xinjiang region shut 112 coal mines with an annual capacity of 11.45 million tonnes by the end of October, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday (Nov 12), citing officials from the regional government's energy bureau. (Reuters)


CENTRAL ASIA


Uzbekistan, Tajikistan Power Grids to Reunite in Boon for the Region
In the latest heartening indication of improving energy cooperation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan is pledging to reintegrate its electricity grid with that of Tajikistan.Efforts have over the past decade gone in the other direction, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan taking the lead in the late 2000s by pulling out of the Soviet-built regional electricity grid. Eso Sadullayev, head of strategic planning at state-run Uzbekenergo, told Uzbek media that Tashkent has already put the required infrastructure into place to reverse that trend. (eurasianet)

Golden Boy Bishimbaev Goes On Trial In Kazakhstan
Though just 37 years old, Kuandyk Bishimbaev has already been Kazakhstan's deputy minister of industry and trade, deputy chairman of the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, chairman of the national holding company Bayterek, and economy minister.But his current title is court defendant, as his trial got under way on November 7.Bishimbaev is accused of accepting bribes when he was head of Bayterek, but there is far more to this story than allegations of an official engaging in corrupt practices. (rferl)

Central Asia corruption

As the investigation into US President Donald Trump’s alleged ties with Russia gains momentum, separate inquiries are being conducted in Europe and the US into a US$2.9 billion Azerbaijani money laundering operation and slush fund that paid off European politicians and financially benefited the country’s ruling elite for two years, Alan Boyd writes. Former Soviet republics have funneled billions of dollars into lobbying activities since the end of the Cold War in an effort to influence the policies of Western governments, including sanctions imposed against their own corrupt actions.