The historically unstable Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan was suddenly thrown into yet another crisis after the former president and his supporters opened fire on the special forces that were dispatched to serve a warrant for his arrest on corruption charges following his refusal to comply with earlier requests for his surrender, with the latest…
Russia’s FSB Director warned that approximately 5,000 Syrian-hardened Daesh terrorists of Central Asian origin are amassing along Afghanistan’s northern border region in preparation for infiltrating back into their homelands under the cover of being refugees and labor migrants, representing a dire threat to the region’s stability that could catalyze a chain reaction of crises that…
A heavy soup made of pulled noodles, meat, and vegetables symbolizes Central Asia’s close cultural and/or ethnic ties with China’s repressed Turkic and Hui Muslims. It also explains growing Central Asian unease with China’s re-education campaign in its north-western province of Xinjiang and its signature infrastructure and energy driven-Belt and Road initiative. Named Ashlan Fu…
China appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a…
A Chinese campaign to forcibly assimilate ethnic Uyghurs in its north-western province of Xinjiang in a bid to erase nationalist sentiment, counter militancy, and create an ‘Uyghur Islam with Chinese characteristics’ ignores lessons learnt not only from recent Chinese history but also the experience of others. The campaign, reminiscent of failed attempts to undermine Uyghur…
Perhaps the most curious topic of today’s Central Asian agenda is the growing dependence of local states on Chinese loans, which would often be referred to in regional media sources as “means of neocolonialism.” In recent years, China has visibly stepped up its involvement in the affairs of Central Asia states, taking advantage of both…
