中文
Xi'an historically served as the starting point of the Silk Road and thus as China's gateway to Central Asia. With the recent hosting of the China-Central Asia Summit in the city, led by Chinese President Xi Jinping and attended by the leaders of five Central Asian nations, it became clear that Xi'an, in tandem with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), remains a crucial gateway to China for Central Asia.
A stable, secure, and prosperous Central Asia benefits not only itself but also China and the rest of the world. For too many decades, Central Asia was a battleground for nations seeking hegemony, which contributed to sharp increases in insecurity in the region, as well as in China. Consequently, taking a better, smarter approach, emphasizing regional trust, and weighing national and regional interests and needs, is what China has offered, exemplified by this summit, which on numerous occasions has been described as the start of a new era of China-Central Asia relations.
President Xi's keynote speech was a focal point of the summit. In addition to acknowledging the progress in relations, particularly over the past decade, he made several new proposals. These include introducing new mechanisms to promote industrial development and investment, implementing new trade facilitation measures, and upgrading bilateral investment agreements. He said China will strive to raise cross-border freight volumes and open "green lanes" for fast clearance of agricultural and sideline products.
In terms of infrastructure development, President Xi noted that China supports the development of the trans-Caspian international transport corridor and will move to improve the construction of China-Europe Railway Express assembly centers. These developments would complement new efforts to upgrade existing ports serving trade between China and Central Asia, with China also encouraging businesses to build warehouses in Central Asian countries.
He also proposed building a China-Central Asia energy development partnership. On the cultural front, he invited Central Asian nations to participate in the "Cultural Silk Road" program, and expressed China's intention to establish a special train service promoting cultural tourism in Central Asia. He also highlighted a favorite cause – traditional Chinese medicine – indicating that more traditional medicine centers will be built in Central Asia.
Finally, he noted that China would assist in designing cooperation plans leveraging science and technology to reduce poverty and, perhaps most importantly, that China would like to help synergize development strategies to promote the modernization of all six countries.
The meeting has captured global attention and, predictably, negative characterizations by some Western media outlets, where division-sowing and double standards never cease to shock or amaze. Nevertheless, more than any other country in the world, the United States is responsible for destabilizing Central Asia, for besetting the region and the wider world with the scourge of terrorism, and for leaving chaos in Afghanistan after a catastrophic two-decade military occupation.
And yet, while China has moved to increase peace, development, and security in the region, using mechanisms like the BRI and multilateralism to foster win-win solutions, as President Xi has promoted a breakthrough in relations with a basketful of benefits for all, the U.S. has continued to meddle in Central Asia, haunting the region despite its humiliating retreat from Kabul. The U.S. and others in the West have continued to sow misinformation about the BRI and have tried to seduce individual nations into U.S.-led decoupling and military alliance schemes. These efforts have only intensified in the wake of the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine and American efforts to vilify and isolate Russia, and they run in tandem with America's anti-China "pivot to Asia."
Additionally, some Western media have pressed the idea that Russia's absence from the summit indicates that China is expanding its influence in "Russia's backyard" at Moscow's expense.
First, referring to Central Asia as Russia's backyard is not constructive. Many Central Asians rightfully regard this as indicating some sort of Russian possession, and also, as suggesting that Central Asia is a relatively unimportant region. In fact, Central Asia, for centuries and arguably longer, has long been regarded as one of the key components of global security. In short, this is not Russia's backyard; this is a crucial part of the world in its own right and, moreover, it consists of China's immediate neighbors.
Second, China works multilaterally with Russia in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other mechanisms and has a very clear friendship treaty with Russia. China's foreign policy tends to be highly rational and consistent. It's difficult to imagine China taking a two-handed or two-faced approach, which would contravene the entire conceptual and practical architecture of its foreign policy.
Although Russia is a power with a complex history and contemporary position vis-à-vis Central Asia, this summit is not a conspiracy against Russian interests, and none of the participating countries wish to convey that message. Nor does it demonstrate China asserting itself as the senior partner in the China-Russia relationship, as some Western media speculate.
This is the logic of Western criticism. China is criticized for meeting Russia, then criticized for not meeting Russia. China is criticized for not leading peace efforts in Ukraine, then criticized for leading those efforts. It's always a zero-sum discourse that aims to debase Beijing.
As Beijing has made it clear, this summit signifies the dawn of a new era, but it's also a logical, albeit significant, step forward. In fact, China has long enjoyed strong bilateral ties with each nation, which were and will be strengthened by one-to-one summits before and after the main meeting in Xi'an.
One point lost on some observers is that this is the second summit of its kind. The first was held online last year, but there were other precedents. For example, all five Central Asian presidents attended the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Consequently, while this meeting in Xi'an is a significant step forward, represented primarily by its positive outcomes, it's also simply the next step in China's regional, multilateral approach to Central Asia. Simultaneously, it signals China's expanding efforts to foster peace, development and security in Asia and beyond.
Josef Gregory Mahoney is a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, senior research fellow with the Institute for the Development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at Southeast University, and senior research fellow with the Hainan CGE Peace Development Foundation.
