Tag: Central Asia

As the U.S. Attends the G7, China Hosts a Summit of Its Own

Media Library

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is kicking off a summit on Thursday that the country is heralding as a historic milestone, rolling out the red carpet for five Central Asian countries that are critical to China’s regional ambitions. The inaugural China-Central Asia summit is part of China’s broader aim to strengthen economic and political partnerships with like-minded countries, to counter what it sees as a U.S.-dominated world order that is trying to contain and suppress China. Notably, Mr. Xi’s summit was scheduled on the eve of the annual Group of 7…

Blinken Finds Receptive Leaders in Central Asia, Where Russia Seeks Aid

Chin@Strategy

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to Central Asia to press his case that the region should hold the line against Russian efforts to seek economic aid as Moscow grapples with Western sanctions. Within hours of landing in Astana, the snow-draped capital of Kazakhstan, he received a sign that the United States had some leverage. The Kazakh president stood next to Mr. Blinken in the blue-doomed presidential palace and thanked the Americans for their support of his nation’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.” The president, Kassym-Jomart…

In Central Asia’s ‘Great Game,’ China Seeks the Advantage

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — As Xi Jinping, China’s leader, visited Central Asian countries this week, he stepped off planes to rousing performances by rows of dancers, musicians and ceremonial guards. Uzbekistan’s leader called him “the greatest statesman,” Chinese state media declared, while the leader of Turkmenistan praised his “wise leadership.” They draped him in medals. For Beijing, the pomp and fanfare that greeted Mr. Xi, as well as the effusive rhetoric of his counterparts, served to show that China is not isolated despite coming under pressure from the United States and much…

For China’s Xi and Other Strongmen, Gorbachev Showed Exactly What Not to Do

Chin@Strategy

In much of the West, Mikhail S. Gorbachev is hailed as the farsighted visionary who brought the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion. But for autocratic leaders in other parts of the world, his legacy stands as a cautionary tale of power discarded quickly and, by some estimates, cavalierly, with little or nothing in return. This lesson has been taken most to heart in China, where Xi Jinping is expected to be anointed to a third term as the country’s top leader during a Communist Party congress announced for October.…

Doppa, a Central Asian Hat, Guides Quest for Uyghur Roots

Chin@Strategy

The woman’s first doppa was embroidered with a rose bed and intertwining black leaves — a motif signifying beauty, spiritual connectedness and resistance. The doppa, a traditional skullcap worn across Central Asia, was passed down to the woman, Subhi Bora, as a girl by her mother, who is Uyghur, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic group from the autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwestern China. Ms. Bora, 31, who grew up in Sydney after her parents fled China, had conflicting feelings about her different cultural identities and never wore the hat outside…