Our reporter Lai Yi
Thirty years ago, the global situation changed.
From January 2 to 6, 1992, China established diplomatic relations with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, becoming one of the first countries to recognize the independence of the five Central Asian countries and establish diplomatic relations with them.
Thirty years later, a hundred years of change has accelerated and the relationship between China and the five Central Asian countries has become more and more permanent. It has been upgraded from good-neighborly friendship to a strategic partner. It has adhered to the main tone of mutual benefit, win-win and mutual assistance, and has become a new model of international relations in the new era.
In the past 30 years, China and the five Central Asian countries have made outstanding achievements in mutual trade, cultural exchanges, and pragmatic cooperation, which is the best portrayal of the comprehensive, rapid and healthy development of China-Central Asia relations.
The scale of foreign trade is expanding year by year
Over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China's economic and trade exchanges with Central Asian countries have maintained a good momentum of surging quantity and quality.
At the beginning of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries was only 460 million U.S. dollars. In 2020, the figure reached 38.6 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2021, trade between China and the five Central Asian countries will grow rapidly, with a year-on-year growth of 24.5% in the first five months. The annual data will exceed 40 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly a hundred times from the beginning of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
So far, China is the largest trading partner of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan's second largest trading partner, and Tajikistan's third largest trading partner.
At the same time, China and the five Central Asian countries are highly complementary in foreign trade, and trade in energy, ore, raw materials, mechanical and electrical equipment, and chemical products has remained stable for a long time. At the same time, both sides are committed to optimizing the trade structure, and the transaction volume of service industries and agricultural products has increased year by year.
Melon from Uzbekistan, sunflower oil from Kazakhstan, cherries from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and ice cream from Turkmenistan have entered the homes of ordinary Chinese people.
In terms of investment, China’s investment in the five Central Asian countries has grown rapidly and has become Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s largest source of investment, Uzbekistan’s second largest source of investment, and Kazakhstan’s fourth largest source of investment.
At the same time, investment areas continue to expand, extending from traditional oil and gas exploration and development, and mineral resource development to many fields such as electricity, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, light industry, building materials, textiles, agriculture, leather processing, and business services.
Humanities exchanges flourish
Over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and the five Central Asian countries have attached importance to strengthening cultural exchanges, and have continued to consolidate the relationship between the "good neighbors", "good friends", "good partners" and "good brothers" of the two sides.
Localities, universities, think tanks, media, literary and artistic organizations and other circles have close exchanges, and joint archaeology, mutual translation works, mutual screening of film and television dramas and other forms of exchanges are innovating.
In 2005, the first Confucius Institute in Central Asia was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. There are currently 9 Confucius Institutes in Central Asia, helping the "China fever" and "Chinese fever" continue to heat up in Central Asian countries.
Major language universities in China have also opened majors and courses in the five languages of Central Asia.
Tourism cooperation between China and Central Asia also has great potential.
From January to August 2019, the number of Chinese tourists to Uzbekistan reached 33,000, and it reached 50,000 throughout the year.
According to the Decree of the President of Uzbekistan, a 7-day visa-free entry policy will be implemented for Chinese citizens from January 1, 2020.
In 2020, the government of Kazakhstan will continue to implement a 72-hour transit visa-free policy for Chinese citizens, and four cities including Shymkent, Aktau, Karaganda and Taraz will provide transit and entry services.
China has also become one of the ideal places for the people of Central Asia to go on holiday.
In 2019, Khorgos received more than 7.77 million tourists from Central Asian countries, a year-on-year increase of more than 45%, and achieved tourism revenue of over 14.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 46%.
Pragmatic cooperation is getting better
Over the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and the five Central Asian countries have persisted in advancing pragmatic cooperation, allowing the people to truly feel the fruits of the development of bilateral relations.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative to jointly build the "Silk Road Economic Belt" during his visit to Kazakhstan for the first time. There is a road map and timetable for practical cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries, and batches of outstanding projects have sprung up. Like breaking through the ground, thrive.
In terms of infrastructure construction, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway, the "Western China-Western Europe" transportation corridor, the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center, the China-Kazakhstan Lianyungang Logistics Cooperation Base and other projects have been completed. The three-dimensional network of pipelines and communications is of great significance to the promotion of local social and economic development.
In terms of interconnection, China-Europe freight trains passing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and other countries have shown rapid growth. In the first 11 months of 2021, China-Europe freight trains will operate 13,800 trains and carry 1.332 million standard containers of goods, a year-on-year increase of 23%. 30%.
In terms of production capacity cooperation, the rich experience and sufficient investment of Chinese companies have greatly stimulated the production capacity potential of Central Asian countries.
In June 2021, the largest wind power project in Central Asia, the Zanatas 100MW Wind Power Project, which was constructed by a Chinese enterprise, achieved full-capacity grid connection; in July, a hydropower station constructed by a Chinese enterprise on the Turguson River in Kazakhstan Realize that all units are put into production for power generation.
In terms of working together to fight the epidemic, China and Central Asian countries have jointly resisted the politicization of the epidemic, actively exchanged experience in epidemic prevention and control, and assisted each other with anti-epidemic materials, and jointly promoted the construction of the "Healthy Silk Road" to continuously achieve new achievements.
At the end of September 2021, the new crown recombinant protein vaccine developed by China was officially put into production in Uzbekistan's pharmaceutical company Zurabek Laboratories Co., Ltd. This is the country's first localized production of China's new crown vaccine.
The 30-year history of friendly exchanges between China and Central Asian countries has laid a solid foundation for the further sublimation of relations in the future.
Looking forward to the future, China is willing to continue to expand all-round cooperation with Central Asian countries, and continue to lead the diplomacy of the head of state to jointly build a new pattern of strategic mutual trust, mutual benefit and openness, good-neighborly friendship, regional security and international cooperation.