After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asia; a new unexplored frontier to the west of China opened up. Central Asia became a crucial source of China’s economic attributes; it offered raw materials and new markets, as well as a major transit zone for exports, to feed China’s growing population and globally integrating economy. China did not have military support and nor did it mean to daunt Russia, since it was a power seat of rising Chinese influence, especially in its former Soviet locality. But with age Beijing carefully shaped a military and economic strategy for Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan though these countries retained strong security ties to Russia. To maintain strategic relation with Russia, China opted to promote economic involvement in the region complemented by a subtle, unimposing military engagement.

During various defense meetings held between China and its Eurasian neighbors, one critical issue that has been discussed by them is the military parade was the future of Central Asian security. China spends an enormous amount of money in economic activities which in no way can be compared to its very little military budget. Though China has significantly increased its overall military budget in recent years and has focused on arms sales, counterterrorism and bilateral initiatives outside the Russia and China led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Considering the present situation, security issues are vital to Beijing’s deliberations regarding the region. But in reality very little amount of Beijing’s defense funds have gone toward reinforcing China’s frontier forces bordering Central Asia or in assisting security establishments of the local governments. All through this year China has faced a skewed economic development with the east coast industrialized due to its booming manufacturing sector, the western interior remained mostly poor and undeveloped.

China worked very quickly and strategically, setting its hinterland, putting initiative to make Uighur population in Xinjiang province less hostile, to improve its ties in Central Asia and promote interregional economic links, China sought to expand its economy westward. This expansion to west not only increased China’s power, but it also safe guarded against U.S. and Japanese efforts to contain its expansion east into the Asia-Pacific region. China displaced Russia as Central Asia’s largest trading partner and became a major lender and investor. One of the most important strategy initiatives for the region, which China has witnessed, is its One Belt One Road (OBOR), designed to integrate the Central Asian economies with each other and with China, with Chinese firms and loans building the region’s transport capabilities and energy markets. China got Russia as a leading trading partner with an increasing number of states and Afghanistan has exhausted all Chinese hopes for great economic gains in that country due to the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan.

China’s economic activities in the rest of Central Asia have been rising rapidly. By 2013, just prior to the announcement of Beijing’s New Silk Road, trade between China and Central Asia had risen to $50 billion from around $1 billion in 2000. Infrastructures such as pipelines, roads and rails built by China now bring natural gas, uranium and other resources to the country, which increasingly relies on Central Asia as a trade route to the Middle East and Europe. Russia’s investments in the region has been trailing behind, and remittances from Central Asian migrants working in Russia have declined significantly, mostly because of Russia’s economic downturn and Western sanctions on Moscow. One main influencing factor of China’s economic integration strategy has been to promote its external and internal security.

Despite the risks of reducing physical barriers between China and foreign sources of instability, Beijing believes that economic prosperity through regional integration will help stabilize Central Asia as well as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous so it would promote Chinese language instruction in Central Asian countries to mitigate linguistic barriers and boost cooperation. Xinjian condition cannot be stable enough if Eurasian condition is not stable. China has been quietly increasing its military influence in Central Asia without upsetting the region’s military balance, which disproportionately favors Russia.

In 2014, China agreed to provide $6.5 million in military aid to Kyrgyzstan and promised hundreds of millions of dollars to Tajikistan and in 2016 China agreed to send almost half a billion dollars in aid to Afghanistan’s armed forces. Since 2002, it has taken part in several bilateral or multilateral military exercises with the Central Asian republics. Beijing has increased its counter narcotics, counterterrorism and special operations trainings and exercises, both inside and, outside the SCO. SCO is used by its members to supervise cooperation and competition in the region. China’s military influence in the region will continue to trail behind Russia’s but will ultimately weaken Moscow’s presence in the long term by seeking help from Washington.

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