china strengthens its role in kyrgyzstan

FYI...

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle+articleid_2470022&title=China_Wants_to_Dominate.html

China Wants to Dominate Its Oil-Rich Neighbors

By: James Kingsdalec
Monday, August 04, 2008 10:42 AM

The following report from Asia Times Online points to another example of strategic trade by China. “Looking to fill the vacuum created when the Russians returned home from the five former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and the roubles dried up, China is now making moves to become the new Central Asian superpower.”

China’s interest in these poor Muslim countries is primarily their fossil fuel resources. Once again we see China wrapping up a supply of oil before it can hit the “world market” on which U.S. economic survival depends. A secondary reason for their interest, no doubt, is simply to enhance China’s geopolitical power among a nearby society and a reduce U.S. influence in their region.

Greater China
Aug 1, 2008

China strengthens its role in Kyrgyzstan
By Daniel Allen

BEIJING - At the high-altitude Irkeshtam border crossing a convoy of shiny Chinese rigs waits to cross into Kyrgyzstan. Facing the deserted vehicles, a snaking line-up of battered Kamaz trucks with Kyrgyz plates sits patiently, returning to China to load up with more cheap cellphones, TV sets and plastic kitchenware.

Here, even at this remote trade conduit between Xinjiang and Central Asia, the Chinese economic juggernaut is dominating the dynamics of trade.

Chinese and Kyrgyz vehicles alike are tangible reminders of the huge imbalance that exists between these two countries: in 2006 the value of Chinese exports flowing into Kyrgyzstan was 150times greater than the flow in the opposite direction.

China is steadily strengthening political and economic ties with small, landlocked Kyrgyzstan, with one eye on the sizeable energy reserves of its neighbors to the north and west. At the same time, Kyrgyzstan’s dependence on Chinese income and infrastructure grows deeper by the day.

Looking to fill the vacuum created when the Russians returned home from the five former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and the roubles dried up, China is now making moves to become the new Central Asian superpower. It is constructing roads, factories, power plants and pipelines and filling supermarket shelves with cut-price consumer goods bought with low-interest loans from Chinese banks.

One of the principal mechanisms by which China is expanding its influence in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).//