by Bruce Pannier / Source Radio Free Europe

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.

To look at OBOR in Central Asia, and some of the potential advantages and disadvantages, RFE/RL assembled a Majlis, or panel, to review the situation.

Moderating the discussion was RFE/RL Media Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir. From Exeter University in the U.K., senior lecturer and Central Asian expert David Lewis joined the discussion. From Geneva, journalist, researcher, and native of Kyrgyzstan Cholpon Orozobekova, who has written for the Jamestown Foundation and The Diplomat took part. I was just back from Washington, New York, and the CESS conference at Princeton and was raring to go, so I pitched in a few comments also.

As Lewis mentioned at the start of the Majlis, the numbers for OBOR are genuinely unprecedented -- $1 trillion of investment with routes potentially reaching some 44 countries with more than half the population of the planet. And, as Lewis pointed out, “This being the initiative of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, it’s something that the Chinese leadership is committed to and it does involve significant funding for Central Asia in particular, and of course, governments, at least in Central Asia, are very enthusiastic about funding flowing into major infrastructure projects.”

OBOR has already started in Central Asia. Lewis recalled the oil pipeline from Kazakhstan, the natural gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, and a road network from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan already lead to China.

These projects and others were started, and some completed, before the autumn of 2013 when Beijing first articulated the OBOR project. As Orozobekova reminded, “In 2013, trade between China and the five Central Asian states was $50 billion already, while, for example, trade between Russia and these [Central Asian] countries was only $30 billion.”

That trend has only become stronger as Russia’s economy has weakened, limiting Russian investment potential. China, meanwhile, has continued to vigorously pursue OBOR. 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.

According to the plan, the part of the route that runs through Central Asia should continue west through northern Iran into Turkey. Central Asia could benefit greatly from this new route for shipping goods to, and receiving goods from countries with access to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.

But already parts of Central Asia are seeing some of the negative aspects that come with these Chinese-funded projects.

“In Central Asia there are some concerns regarding the flow of migrants from China,” Lewis said. He explained: “Typically Chinese companies like to use their own people, bring in Chinese labor to get a job done. It’s often very effective but it doesn’t always give people local jobs and employ local specialists.”

That has led to problems in the oil fields of western Kazakhstan where Chinese employees work, in mining areas in Kyrgyzstan where Chinese employees work, and along various parts of the roads being constructed in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where locals work alongside Chinese workers. Sometimes the problems are caused by rumors of the Chinese receiving better wages, sometimes the lack of the locals’ ability to communicate with the Chinese workers has led to fights.

Chinese farmers are also tending agricultural land in Tajikistan vacated by local farmers who left to find work in Russia. A proposal to lease farmland in Kazakhstan earlier this year sparked the largest protests seen there in some 20 years, when rumors spread that Chinese farmers would lease portions of Kazakhstan’s farmland.

Orozobekova said, “In Central Asia there are some concerns regarding the flow of migrants from China.”

Additionally, while Chinese workers are coming to Central Asia, Lewis said, “China just doesn’t offer that kind of labor migration, there’s no real option to go to China to work.” So Central Asia’s migrant laborers continue to mainly go to Russia.

And there are also environmental concerns. Chinese companies do not have a good track record when it comes to ecological considerations. Lewis explained, “In Kyrgyzstan and in Tajikistan recently, new cement plants developed by China are notoriously polluting industries and can have a really negative effect on local people.” Refineries in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan built or operated by Chinese companies have also received complaints from local administrations and residents.

Orozobekova also pointed out for Kyrgyzstan, OBOR is a competitor project. She said many in Kyrgyzstan “are overwhelmed with the EEU, the Eurasian Economic Union.” The EEU is the Russian-led organization that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan officially joined in August 2015. Orozobekova said, “When it comes to OBOR and the EEU there’s a little bit of a clash between them because currently, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan joined the EEU with Russia [and] there are so many problems within this organization [EEU].”

And Orozobekova reminded that since 1998, Kyrgyzstan is also a member of the World Trade Organization, so officials in Bishkek must do some furious juggling to try to simultaneously meet the regulations of all these organizations.

And Lewis noted, “We know there’s a slowdown going on in the Chinese economy and so these very ambitious plans, which require a lot of funding, may be more difficult than was considered.”

OBOR is a thick topic, and one the Majlis will address again in the near future. Participants in this latest Majlis session explored more deeply the benefits and detriments of being one of the first sections of OBOR, including potential security problems, now and in the future.

An audio recording of the discussion can be heard at:

Gwadar, Pakistan: Pakistan's prime minister and army chief welcomed on Sunday the first large shipment of Chinese goods through the renovated port of Gwadar, part of a trade link between western China and the Arabian Sea.

The deep-water port in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan is key to the $US46 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that also encompasses roads and energy projects.

A Pakistan Navy ship berth at Gwadar port. Photo: AP

"Pakistan is located at the intersection of three engines of growth in Asia - South Asia, China and Central Asia," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said at a ceremony on Sunday.

"CPEC will help in integrating these regions into an economic zone offering great opportunities for people of the region as well as investors from all over the world."

A Pakistan Navy soldier stands guard while a loaded Chinese ship prepares to depart from Gwadar port. Photo: AP

Army chief General Raheel Sharif also attended Sunday's ceremony at the port, which is expected mostly to see imports of building materials in the next year before eventually becoming a gateway for goods from western China's Xinjiang province.

The port ceremony came a day after a bomb in another part of Baluchistan killed at least 52 people at a Muslim shrine in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Baluchistan is home to an ethnic nationalist insurgency as well as operations by sectarian militants including Lashkar-e-Jangvi, which has previously said it partners with Islamic State's Middle East-based leadership.

Pakistan has raised a dedicated security force to protect CPEC projects. The prime minister on Sunday vowed that attacks would not derail any of the work, while expressing condolences to victims of the shrine attack.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, centre left, and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, third from right, pray after inaugurating a new international trade route during a ceremony at Gwadar port. Photo: AP

"Our hearts are saddened and thoughts are with the innocent victims' families," he said.

"But at the same time, "I want to re-emphasise that such cowardly attacks cannot weaken our resolve to eliminate the menace of extremism and terrorism from our country in all forms." 

Reuters

By Christine Chou, The China Post

Yulin, China -- Many municipalities in China are facing the double struggle of curbing coal output and filling the economic void left by closed mines.

But a coal-rich city in the country's northwest is diversifying in attempt to revive its economy — turning to tourism, agriculture and alternative energy.

Located on the northern tip of Shaanxi province, Yulin has become a poster child for the country's attempts to move away from an economic reliance on mineral resources.

The city has been lauded by the national media as a consummate example of economic transformation.

Deputy Mayor Zhang Haifeng said Yulin was aiming to become "one of the most important cities along the Silk Road."

Zhang was referring to the ancient Silk Road trade route, consisting of a string of cities across Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The route is enjoying a contemporary revival with backing from China's central government.

The new "Silk Road Economic Belt," along with the "Maritime Silk Road" sea route, forms the "One Belt, One Road" initiative started by the China's central government in 2013.

The ambitious plan seeks to adapt the links of the historical Silk Road, and solve the country's domestic overcapacity by improving trade connections with Eurasia.

The history of Yulin comes to the fore when one takes a walk down the streets in the city's downtown, where local snack vendors dot alleys crammed with centuries-old buildings.

A traditional bakery sells hard, dry bread that requires incredible effort to bite into. Our local guide said this durable food had been popular with merchants passing through the city had, as it could last for weeks during the long, dusty journey ahead.

Chinese Kuwait

The discovery of large-scale mineral deposits in the 1980s dramatically changed the face of Yulin.

Zhang said Yulin was known as the "Kuwait of China" given its abundance of gas and coal fields.

The deputy mayor said the city had been "a key area in Shaanxi since ancient times because of its strategic position."

He added that Yulin continued to be an "important city in the nation's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative."

During the city's 11th International Coal and Energy Expo in September, a record-breaking 101 domestic and overseas deals were made with a combined value of 119.7 billion yuan — the highest in history, according to the government.

Local officials seem confident the city will cash in on its cultural capital. With help from the new opportunities provided by central government initiatives, they hope to expand the city into an international hub for the energy and chemical industries.

Turning to Tourism

Yulin's municipal government highlighted tourism and the cultural industries as key development areas.

"We will speed up progress in building up key tourist attractions, improve services offered to foreign visitors and create a unique tourism brand for Yulin," said Zhang.

Head of the tourism bureau Cui Yuan expressed confidence that Yulin's cultural heritage would attract tourists.

As part of these tourism efforts, Yulin was planning to renovate and upgrade its airport and offer flights to more destinations, Cui said.

Biennials in country’s Muslim-majority regions coincide with cultural exchange with Qatar

by LISA MOVIUS

China is increasingly engaging with countries with mainly Muslim populations through cultural exchanges as its government champions the creation of a new, economic “Silk Road”. Two biennials opened this autumn in the country’s far-flung western regions, which are the respective homelands of China’s two largest Muslim minorities, the Turkic Uyghurs and the more assimilated Hui. Meanwhile, the 11th Shanghai Biennale, which is due to open on 11 November (until 12 March 2017), features an unprecedented number of international artists from Muslim countries, even though China’s own Muslim minorities remain marginalised.

The third Xinjiang International Art Biennale was organised by the ministry of culture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Urumqi (8-31 October). Featuring folk and popular art, which reflect official preferences, it contrasts starkly with the global contemporary approach of the first Yinchuan Biennale (until 18 December) at the new, private MoCA Yinchuan, in the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Urumqi and Yinchuan are stops on China’s ancient Silk Road, the overland trade route that led to the mostly Muslim countries to China’s west. Their biennials coincide with an increase in China’s cultural engagement with neighbouring countries and the Middle East. For example, Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art is currently showing Treasures of China (until 7 January), including terracotta warriors from Xi’an—the start of the Silk Road—as part of the official Qatar-China Year.

The cultural exchange with Qatar is part of China’s massive One Belt, One Road Initiative, championed by president Xi Jinping as a way to counteract slowing domestic growth. The Chinese government aims to develop new markets to China’s west and south.

Official cultural exchanges under One Belt, One Road’s auspices now abound, such as a thematic section of the 18th China Shanghai International Arts Festival (until November 15), featuring projects from Qatar and Egypt. Unofficially, such events may encourage institutions in coastal China to show more work by contemporary artists from Muslim-majority countries. However, there are no indicators that state scrutiny of unofficial shows will relax. Other Gallery Shanghai’s March 2011 group exhibition The Third Eye, which featured works by nine Iranian artists, was closed after the Iranian consulate complained to the Chinese authorities about its content.

Religious and political taboos

In the past two decades artists from across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have rarely been shown in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, partly because politics and religion, major themes in contemporary art from these regions, are major taboos in China. Meanwhile, negative stereotypes of the Hui, Uyghurs and foreign Muslims remain common among Han Chinese. “It is impossible to attract publicity and visitors without famous artists’ works in a show. Chinese art museums are still early in their evolution, and well-known Islamic artists are very few,” says MoCA Yinchuan director Liu Wenjin. “I will not use Islamic identity to promote artists­—their background is incidental to whether their art can move the audience.” She blames Chinese audiences’ hesitancy towards art from the Islamic world on sensationalist media reports.

While Chinese institutions and collectors are often uninterested in, or wary of, contemporary art from countries with mainly Muslim populations, the Shanghai Biennale will feature work by artists including Beiruit-based, Iraqi-American Rheim Alkadhi and Indonesia’s Agan Harahap. The show, which is organised by Raqs Media Collective, founded by three New Delhi-based artists, stresses “south-south co-operation”.