Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Chinese Grand Strategies in Central Asia: The Role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Belt and Road Initiative

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Central Asia has long emerged as a hotspot for both the regional and extra-regional powers for two main reasons: its geopolitical location in the middle of Eurasia between Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Russia and China, and their abundant and mostly unexplored natural resources. Sitting on huge untapped hydrocarbon potentials the Central Asian geographical entity in recent years has offered enormous opportunity and appeal for global countries and emerged as a grand chessboard for regional and extra-regional players. China is one such new pole in the new great game without which any geopolitical and geo-economic debate on Central Asia would be incomplete. With this prelude, this article attempts to analyse China's rise in Central Asia and its strategies to strengthen its position in the heartland region by discarding the much-hyped great game thesis and argues that China’s rise is unparallel and unmatched as testified by the recent Belt and Road Initiative of Beijing

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Financial Times (2016), Map: Connecting Central Asia, May 10, available at: https://www.ft.com/content/ee5cf40a-15e5-11e6-9d98-00386a18e39d

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akiner, Shirin. 1994. Post-Soviet Central Asia: Past is Prologue. In The New Central Asia and Its Neighbours, ed. Peter Ferdinand, 10. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alaolmolki, Nozar. 2001. Life after the Soviet Union. New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amighini, Alessia. 2017. China’s Belt and Road: A Game Changer? Milano: The Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI).

  • Atal, Subodh. 2003. Central Asian Geopolitics and the U.S Policy in the region: The Post-11 September Era. Mediterranean Quarterly. Volume. 14. No. 2. Spring. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/42955

  • Avranitopoulos, Constantine. 2002. The Geopolitics of Oil in Central Asia. Institute of International Relations: Athens, March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Rodger. 2016. The New Round in the Great Game Begins. Stratfor. Worldview. September 7. Available at: https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/new-round-great-game-begins

  • Baum, Richard. 1994. Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blank, S. 2002. China’s Defeats in Central Asia, Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst 14 August.

  • Bovingdon, Gardner. 2010. The Uyghurs: Strangers in their own land. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • BP. . 2018. BP Statistical Review of World Energy. British Petroleum: March, available at www.bp.com.

    Google Scholar 

  • Britannica .2020. “Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China”, Britannica, available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Xinjiang/Climate#ref280643.

  • Brummer, M. 2007. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Iran: A Power-Full Union. Journal of International Affairs 60 (2): 185–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, Amiya. 2017. The Trade Game: Engaging with Central Asia. New Delhi: Pentagon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Xiangming and Fazilov, Fakhmiddin .2018. “Re-centering Central Asia: China’s New Great Game in Old Eurasian Land”, Palgrave Communications, Vol. 4(71), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0125-5, www.nature.com/palcomms.

  • Chung, C. 2004. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China Quarterly, 179 (3): 989–1009. Clarke, M. 2008. ‘Making the Crooked Straight’: China’s Grand Strategy of ‘Peaceful Rise’ and its Central Asian Dimension, Asian Security 4(2):107–142.

  • Clarke, Michael .2010. China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: The Dynamics of “New Regionalism,” “Vassalization,” and Geopolitics in Central Asia, in Emilian Kavalski (Eds.), The New Central Asia: The Regional Impact of International Actors, World Scientific. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/143873922.pdf.

  • Clover, Charles and Hornby, Lucy .2015. “China’s Great Game: Road to a new empire,” Financial Times, October 12, retrieved from: https://www.ft.com/content/6e098274-587a-11e5-a28b-50226830d644, (accessed on July 16, 2020).

  • Cooley, Alexander. 2012. The New Great Game in Central Asia: Geopolitics in a Post-Western World. Foreign Affairs. August. Available at: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-asia/2012-08-07/new-great-game-central-asia

  • Dekmejian, R. Hrair., and H. Hovann. Simonian. 2001. Troubled Waters - The Geopolitics of the Caspian Region. London: I. B. Tauris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dijak Meine Peter Van and Martens Patrick. 2016. The Silk Road and Chinese interests in Central Asia and the Caucasus: The Case of Georgia, Maastricht School of Management. Working Paper No. 2016/12, August.

  • Dutta Sujit. 2003. "China's Emerging Ties with Central Asia," in Nirmala Joshi, ed., Central Asia: The Great Game Replayed. New Delhi: New Century Books, p.3.

  • Frankopan, P. 2015. The Silk Roads: a New History of the World. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germann, Christoph. 2013. The New Great Game Roundup: China’s Central Asia Problem. Newsbud. May 30. Available at: https://www.newsbud.com/2013/05/30/the-new-great-game-round-up-chinas-central-asia-problem/

  • Gill, Don McLain .2020. “India needs a “China Strategy” in Central Asia”, Geopolitical Monitor, June 19, available at: https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/india-needs-a-china-strategy-in-central-asia/.

  • Gubaidulina, Mara and Yelibayeva Aigerim .2012. “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: China’s Grand Strategy in Central Asia”, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology Vol:6, No:11.

  • Hart, Michael. 2016. Central Asia’s oil and gas now flows to the East. The Diplomat, August 18, available at: http://thediplomat.com/2016/08/central-asias-oil-and-gas-now-flows-to-the-east/

  • Hopkirk, Peter. 1990. The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, 124. London: John Murray Publishers Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkirk, Peter. 1992. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. New York: Kodansha Globe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, Richard. 2005. China’s Central Asian Policy: Making Sense of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In Central Asia at the End of the Transition, New York, ed. Boris Rumer, 130. Sharpe: M.E.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hydrocarbons Technology .2020. “Kazakhstan-China Crude Oil Pipeline,” Hydrocarbons Technology, available at: https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/kazakhstan-china-crude-oil-pipeline/.

  • ICG. 2007. Energy and Cooperation in Central Asia: Challenges and Opportunity. International Crisis Group. 24 May 2007. p. 32.

  • ICG. 2007a. Central Asia’s Energy Risk, Asia Report. No. 133. 24 May. International Crisis Group. Bishkek.

  • Joshi, Nirmala. 2003. Introduction. In Central Asia: The Great Game Replayed, An Indian Perspective, ed. Nirmala Joshi, 1. Delhi: New Century Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik, Devendra. 1970. Central Asia in Modern Times, 13. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keohane, Robert O and Nye, Joseph S. Jr. (2012), Power and Interdependence, Boston: Longman (4th edition).

  • Khojaev, Ablat. 2007. China’s Central Asia Policy. Central Asia and the Caucasus, no. 3 (45), p. 35. Available at: http://www.ca-c.org/journal/2007-03-eng/03.shtml.

  • Kim, Younkyoo, Indeo, Fabio. 2013. The New Great Game in Central Asia post-2014: The U.S “New Silk Road” Strategy and Sino-Russian rivalry. Communist and Post-Communist Studies. Volume. 46. Issue. 2. June. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967067X13000147

  • Kramer andrew E. 2009. Putin’s Grasp of Energy Drives Russian Agenda. New York Times Online Edition. January 28. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/world/europe/29putin.html?

  • Kurlantzick, Joshua. 2017. China’s Soft Power Offensive. Real Clear Defense. May 17. available at: http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/05/17/chinas_soft_power_offensive_111400.html

  • Li Cheng .2016. Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era, Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution.

  • Mackinder Halford. 1904. The Geographical Pivot of History. The Geographical Journal. Vol. 23, No. 4, April, available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1775498?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.

  • Mackinder, Halford .1904. The Geographical Pivot of History, The Geographical Journal. Vol. 170, No. 4, December, pp. 298–321. Available at: https://www.iwp.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20131016_MackinderTheGeographicalJournal.pdf.

  • Mackinder, Halford. 1919. The Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction, vol. 46399. H Holt: Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mearsheimer, John. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mearsheimer, John .2005. “Better to Be Godzilla than Bambi,” Foreign Policy, Vol.146 (Jan/Feb).

  • MFA. 2013. President Xi Jinping Delivers Important Speech and Proposes to Build a Silk Road Economic Belt with Central Asian Countries. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Republic of China. September 23. Beijing. available at: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/xjpfwzysiesgjtfhshzzfh_665686/t1076334.shtml.

  • Mostafa, G., and M. Mahmood. 2018. Eurasian Economic Union: Evolution, challenges and possible future directions. Journal of Eurasian Studies. 9: 163–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee, Kunal. 2010. The Uyghur Question in Contemporary China. Strategic Analysis 34 (3): 420–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palo, Magari .2017. Introduction in Amighini, Alessia (eds.). China’s Belt and Road: A Game Changer? Milano: The Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI).

  • Pantucci, Raffaello .2017. China: Understanding Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, RUSI, May 14.

  • Patnaik, Ajay. 2016. Central Asia: Geopolitics. Security and Stability, New Delhi: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pan, Philip P. 2008. Out of Mao’s Shadow – the struggle for the soul of a new China. New York: Simon and Schuster paperback.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pradhan, Ramakrushna. 2010. Geopolitics of Central Asia: China-US Engagement. Germany: VDM Verlag-Muller.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pradhan, Ramakrushna .2018. “China’s Rise in Central Asia: The New Silk Road Diplomacy”, Fudan Journal of Humanities and Social Science. Springer. Vol. 11, No. 1, March.

  • Pradhan, Ramakrushna .2019. “Petro-politics and Pipeline Diplomacy in Central Asia: Can India Afford to wait in the Wings?” India Quarterly. Vol. 75. No.4.

  • R.G. Gidadhubli .2004. Politics of Oil and Natural Gas in Central Asia: Conflicts and Co-operation, Dialogue, October-December, 2004. Volume 6. No. 2.

  • Rashid, Ahmed .2002. Taliban – Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia, London: I. B. Tauris.

  • Reuters .2017. “China formally opens first overseas military base in Djibouti,” Reuters August 1st.

  • Rumer, Boris. 2015. Central Asia and the New Global Economy. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumer, Eugene, Sokolsky, Richard and et’al. 2016. U.S Policy towards Central Asia. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. January 25. Available at: http://carnegieendowment.org/2016/01/25/u.s.-policy-toward-central-asia-3.0-pub-62556

  • Sajjanhar, Ashok. 2016. India-Central Asia Relations: Expanding Vistas of Partnership, June 22. New Delhi: Observers Research Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarah, Lain and Pantucci, Raffaello .2016. China and Russia in Central Asia: Cooperation and Conflict, Central Asia Programme, May 2.available at: http://chinaincentralasia.com/2016/05/02/china_and_russia_in_central_asia/

  • Sascha Muller Kraenner. 2008. China’s and India’s Emerging Energy Foreign Policy. Bonn: German Development Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serikkaliyeva, Azhar .2019. The role of the Central Asian Region in China’s New Silk Road Economic Belt Project, Eurasian Research Journal, Vol. 1, No.1, January. Available at: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/790992.

  • Smith, Jeff and Ilan Berman .2011. Central Asia’s Energy Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, January 27, available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703398504576101063649062424

  • South China Morning Post .2017. Belt and Road: 2107 Summit, China: South China Morning Post. available at: http://www.scmp.com/topics/belt-and-road-2017-summit

  • Swanstrom, N. 2005. China and Central Asia: A New Great Game or Traditional Vassal Relations? Journal of Contemporary China 14 (45): 569–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Financial Times .2016. Map: Connecting Central Asia, The Financial Times, May 10, available at: https://www.ft.com/content/ee5cf40a-15e5-11e6-9d98-00386a18e39d.

  • The Financial Times .2016. China’s plans for a ‘new silk road’ through Central Asia to the Middle East and Europe could transform the region’s economies’.

  • UNCTAD. 2016. “Statistic on Total Trade of China, Russia and the US with five Central Asian Republics,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, available at: http://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx.

  • Van Dijk, M.P .2012. An increasing role for smaller Chinese cities in Western provinces. Journal of town & city management, Volume 2 - Issue 4 p. 321- 322.

  • Walt Stephen M .1998. “International Relations: One World, Many Theories,” Foreign Policy, no. 110 (Spring).

  • Waltz, Kenneth. 1979. Theory of International Politics. MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, William. 2016. China’s huge One Belt One Road Initiative is sweeping Central Asia. Commentary Asia, The Heritage. November 21, available at: http://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/chinas-huge-one-belt-one-road-initiative-sweeping-central-asia.

  • Winter, T. 2015. Heritage diplomacy along the One Belt One Road. The Newsletter. No. 74, summer. Leiden: IIAS.

  • Wu, Jianmin. 2015. One belt and one road, Far-reaching initiative''. China-US focus. http://tinyurl.com/chinaUSbeltroad.

  • Yan, Wang and Wuqing, Peng .2020. “Xinjiang population growth best answers Western smear campaign on Uygurs”, Global Times, September 4, available at: https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1199917.shtml.

  • Yau, Niva.2020. Russia and China’s Quiet Rivalry in Central Asia. Foreign Policy Research Institute. September 17. Available at: https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/09/russia-and-chinas-quiet-rivalry-in-central-asia/

  • Yiwei, W. 2018. Opinion: When SCO meets BRI-What should the world expect? CGTN, 5th June, Available at: https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3145544f77457a6333566d54/index.html

  • Yu, Shirley Z .2018. Belt and Road Initiative: Defining China’s Grand Strategy and the Future World Order, A Thesis in the Field of Government for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts, Harvard University March, available at: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/37799759/YU-DOCUMENT-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

  • Yuang, Bernard. 2017. One Belt, One Road: A Golden Opportunity for ASEAN. May 17, Think Business. The National University of Singapore. available at: http://thinkbusiness.nus.edu/article/one-belt-one-road-a-golden-opportunity-for-asean/?utm_source=ExecutiveInsights&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ExecutiveInsights2017_Issue0024.

  • Zhang, Baohui .2014. “Xi Jinping, ‘Pragmatic’ Offensive Realism and China’s Rise”, Global Asia, Vol. 9, No. 2, July.

  • Zhi, Wang. 2016. China’s New Silk Road Strategy and Foreign Policy towards Central Asia. Southeast Review of Asian Studies. 38: 69–77.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Science, Fakir Mohan University, Nuapadhi, Balasore, 756020, Odisha, India

    Ramakrushna Pradhan

  2. The Centre for Diaspora Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India

    Siba Sankar Mohanty

Authors
  1. Ramakrushna Pradhan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Siba Sankar Mohanty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramakrushna Pradhan.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOC 35 kb)

Supplementary file2 (DOC 31 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pradhan, R., Mohanty, S.S. Chinese Grand Strategies in Central Asia: The Role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Belt and Road Initiative. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 14, 197–223 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-021-00318-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-021-00318-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation