Political Economic Perspectives of China's Belt and Road Initiative by Christian Ploberger

Author:Christian Ploberger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Source: Data derived from various versions of the Chinese Statistical Yearbook.

A strengthening of China’s position in its relations with Central Asian countries will ultimately interfere with Russia’s interests in Central Asia, which still perceive Central Asia as belonging to its sphere of influence. In the late 19th century and during the time of the Soviet Union, in Russia’s perception, all Central Asia was an integral part of it, fully integrated into the Soviet Union’s economy and political system. Certainly, human and linguistic ties between Central Asia and Russia continue to exist. In supporting its position within Central Asia, over time Russia has proposed a number of regional integration projects with Central Asian countries, though not always successfully. One of the most recent initiatives is the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which was founded in Astana in 2014, as the Eurasian integration became a geopolitical project for Russia. As any other country, Russia looks to the region’s energy and mineral resources when aiming at closer economic integration with Central Asian states. As a result, as Gallo (2014) pointed out, Russia also follows a political agenda trying to balance the increasing influence of the EU and China in Central Asia.

Yet in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the region definitely intended to become more independent of Russian influence, which was still strongly felt, since the entire existing infrastructure was directed towards Moscow. In addition, this infrastructure was decaying because of the economic and political challenges the newly independent states of Central Asia were facing, and the disintegration of the Soviet economy and economic space. This generated a devastating economic effect. For all these reasons, Central Asian states were exploring to develop alternative opportunities to reduce their reliance on Moscow and to get access to the global market. As a result of their own economic weakness, they were not in the position to finance new infrastructure networks themselves. However, although Russia’s influence was considerably weakened, it still continued to play an important economic and political role in Central Asia.

From a Russian perspective, the EEU project may generate a dynamic within the region towards a renewed orientation to Moscow, though a regional desire to be connected with outside markets (i.e. Europe and China) continues to exist. It is possible to identify a double process of regional integration: one via the EEU towards Moscow and another via the BRI with China. However, it is necessary to ascertain how such a double process of integration will work out in economic and political terms and how the competing interests of the Central Asian countries, Moscow, and Beijing can be aligned, if they can be aligned at all. Such considerations raise the question about the compatibility of Russia’s EEU and China’s BRI concepts. However, when Putin and Xi Jinping met on 8 May 2015 to sign a declaration of cooperation between the EEU and the BRI, Putin stated: ‘We think that the Eurasian integration project and the Silk Road Economic Belt project complement each other very

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