Central Asian people look at China: trust can be win-win!

Source: Global Times

The China-Central Asia Summit held in Xi'an on May 18-19 sent a message to the world that China and Central Asia will start deeper cooperation. Central Asia is the first place to jointly build the "Belt and Road". Over the past 10 years, the people of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have had more and more people-to-people exchanges with China, covering more and more fields. Good news related to China and Central Asia, such as "the total trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries has reached a record high", "China and the five Central Asian countries have fully resumed flights", and "Western University of Technology has set up a branch campus in Kazakhstan", show that a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future is being built hand in hand.

Cooperation with China brings "zero breakthrough"

When the Global Times reporter recently visited Uzbekistan, he found that Ukrainian President Mirziyoyev has been implementing the policy of opening up and economic reform since he came to power, and the country's economic situation has changed significantly. When the reporter talked about the enthusiasm of the Ukrainian officials and experts interviewed, some long-time local Chinese said, "This is similar to the reform and opening up of China, and it is friendly to foreigners and foreign investment." China is Tajikistan's number one source of investment, and Chinese aid projects can be found everywhere in Dushanbe, the capital. The reporter even found that in the hotel where Dushanbe stayed, the plugs were all "national standard" plugs commonly used in China, rather than the "European standard" plugs commonly used in the past.

The China-Europe train passing through Central Asia has become a "steel camel caravan" galloping across Eurasia. Kenzaev, deputy editor-in-chief of Uzbekistan's People's Speech, who has traveled to China many times to report, said: "In the Xi'an International Port Area, I have seen many China-Europe trains that are ready to go to Central Asian countries, which have brought convenience and business opportunities to our country and people, and are the best witness of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides." "Uzbekistan is a "double landlocked country" in the heart of Central Asia, with no access to the sea of its own and five neighboring countries are also landlocked. In recent years, the Ukrainian government has connected its own development planning with the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and a number of key cooperation projects such as the China-Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine highway have been completed one after another, transforming Uzbekistan from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country".

The increased cooperation between countries naturally affects the perception of China by ordinary people. Uzbek businessman Khasanov and his siblings have opened a cosmetics factory in the capital, Tashkent, mainly supplying Russia and neighboring Central Asian countries. He told the Global Times: "Uzbeks have been the best merchants on the Silk Road since ancient times. My products are very environmentally friendly, now business in Russia is not easy to do, I am preparing to develop the Chinese market. Khasanov, whose two children are studying Chinese, said meaningfully: "I hope they study hard and can be admitted to the Chinese government scholarship program." Many of our friends and family are considering the next generation to learn Chinese, which means more employment opportunities in the future. In recent years, the Belt and Road projects jointly built by China and Ukraine have created a lot of jobs for us. China has invested a lot in Ukraine's infrastructure. The roads we travel on are Chinese help to build, and the electricity used in our homes is also contributed by Chinese companies. ”

It is understood that there are more than 2,000 Chinese investment enterprises in Ukraine, involving industries ranging from light industrial products, agriculture to oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and construction, telecommunications, etc. An employee of a Chinese company based in Uzbekistan for many years said that locals told him: "We like to work in Chinese-funded institutions not only because the salary and opportunities are attractive, but more importantly Chinese we don't look at us through colored glasses, and we emphasize mutual understanding and humanistic care in our interactions." In his view, in the early days of independence in Central Asian countries, many people lacked understanding of China and their attitude towards Chinese was "neither skeptical nor very supportive", but time and facts have proved that Chinese not only brought local capital, technology, but also friendship. Mahmut, who has worked in a local construction company in Ukraine and a Chinese company, lamented: "Chinese is very hardworking, and that kind of diligence is something we have never seen before." Once when building a road in an area with a very difficult natural environment, the Ukrainian employees felt that they could not continue, but the Chinese engineers and ordinary road construction workers were insisting. For the sake of everyone's health, the person in charge of the Chinese enterprise personally went to the nearby village to coordinate the search for a source of pure drinking water. The Chinese staff is also very friendly and everyone gets along very well. ”

During an interview in Tajikistan, Sharipov, director of the Department of Light Industry of the Ministry of Industry and New Technology, told the Global Times that Tajikistan is actively participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road", and a series of projects cooperated by the two sides have enabled the Central Asian country to achieve "zero breakthroughs" in many industrial fields. He believes that the two sides continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the industrial field, which can achieve win-win development and benefit the people of the two countries.

More and more young people choose to study in China at their own expense

"Commercial and trade cooperation with China not only affects the growth of Kazakhstan's GDP, but also enriches the country's culture." Kazakhstan's inbusiness network published an article on May 20, "At present, there are more than 10,000 Kazakh students in China. For hundreds of years, Kazakhstan has never deviated from the principle of mutual support and help in Chinese exchanges. We have set a commendable example of coexistence and the development of good-neighbourly relations. ”

Mr. Yang, who has lived in Kazakhstan for nearly 30 years, told the Global Times: "I often see in the local news that the people interviewed say that Chinese tourists are good. I think that with the gradual recovery of flights and tourism, Kazakhstan's tourism practitioners will be happy. He added: "Compared with earlier years, more and more people in Central Asian countries recognize that Chinese products are of good quality. A lot of people say, 'If there were no imports from China, the prices of the goods we consume every day would be much more expensive.'" Many local people use Huawei, OPPO mobile phones, WeChat, Douyin. For young people in Kazakhstan, they like Chinese stars such as Lu Han and Zhang Yixing, and they also know that their own singer Di Mahi is famous in China. ”

The Confucius Institute is an important institution for strengthening people-to-people exchanges between Central Asian countries and China. The Confucius Institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was the first Confucius Institute in Central Asia, and its teachers Jasmine and Kong Xixi were two sisters whose grandfather fought against Japan in Northeast China as part of the Soviet Red Army. The sisters have been interested in China since they were young and have studied in China. According to reports, many of the Ukrainian students in the Confucius Institute have relatives at home who have studied Chinese or worked in China. In Uzbekistan, there are even five sisters who have learned the good stories of Chinese. Sabirov, director of the Department of History, Cultural Heritage and Humanities Studies of the Central Asian Institute of International Studies (Tashkent), believes that in recent years, Confucius Institutes have taken root in Tashkent and Samarkand, many Chinese universities have opened Uzbek language majors, and the establishment of twinning and friendly relations between Shanghai and Tashkent, Xi'an and Samarkand, and Shaanxi Province and Samarkand has further stimulated the momentum of people-to-people exchanges, and witnessed that the two sides are working together to build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

O'Donnell, an Australian teacher at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, said in a recent interview with the Global Times that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative has deepened the social and humanistic exchanges between the people of China and Central Asian countries, especially the exchange between young people. In her view, the "New Silk Road University Alliance" led by Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2015 and the "Asian University Alliance" led by Tsinghua University in 2017 have strengthened cultural and educational exchanges and capacity building between universities in various countries, and promoted the implementation of student exchange programs and research cooperation.

Relevant data show that in recent years, China has become one of the main destinations and preferred countries for studying in Central Asian countries, and the number of scholarship students and self-funded international students has increased, from 1183 and 10747 in 2010 to 4779 and 25106 in 2018, respectively. According to the observation of a Kyrgyz girl studying at Tsinghua University's School of Social Sciences, ten years ago, there were only about 1,000 Kyrgyz students studying in China, and the current number is about 6,000, "which is much more than the number of Kyrgyzstan students studying in the United States." She believes that more and more people choose to study in China at their own expense, which truly reflects the trust of the Kyrgyz people in China's higher education and social security system.

"Beijing is far away, but China is close to us"

An Yi's father is a scholar on Kyrgyzstan cooperation, and she has a deep affection for China and has many special insights into China-Kyrgyzstan relations and relations between China and Central Asian countries. An Yi told the Global Times: "China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a space power. In my opinion, China is a responsible big country. In the turbulent geopolitical sea, China is a beacon of stability. Once in Bishkek to attend a seminar to discuss Sino-Kyrgyz relations, she was particularly impressed by a speaker who said, "Beijing is far away from us, but China is close to us." While stressing that China and Kyrgyzstan were close neighbors, the speaker smiled and pulled out a Chinese-made mobile phone from his pocket and pointed to his suit. At that moment, everyone attending the seminar understood that "almost everything around us is inseparable from 'Made in China'."

After 10 months in Beijing with her parents in 2008, Anyi felt that Beijing's highways, cars, and construction sites "looked like America." She came to China twice more in 2012 and 2016 and became more and more aware of why her father always said that "China is developing rapidly." "I have seen the changes in China with my own eyes. Whether it's new skyscrapers, new technologies, robots welcoming you in hotels, space exploration in China, it's all exciting. Behind China's miracles is a wise government, patriotic, hardworking and socially responsible citizens, and the Confucian way of Chinese thinking that has made China a responsible power.

Ismail Daurov, who runs a clinic in Kazakhstan, studied abroad at Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for 9 years. While in China, Dorov helped the community with epidemic prevention work as a volunteer, saying: "Although I am a foreigner, I am not a bystander, according to the Kazakh Business newspaper. "Daurov returned to his hometown to open a clinic after completing his studies because he wanted to use the knowledge of Chinese medicine learned in China for many years to help more people, and at the same time promote Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment in Kazakhstan.

Mamadazimov, chief researcher of the Eurasian Institute of the Tajikistan Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times that Tajikistan and China have had many similar cultures and customs since ancient times. For example, in past centuries, the people of Tajikistan like to fly kites, and the fact that Tajikistan and China often hold international kite festivals fully proves the cultural similarities between the two countries. He also said that the successful implementation of the Luban workshop project in Tajikistan will help improve the professional skills of local youth, which is of great significance to the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. In Mamadazimov's view, thanks to the four great inventions of ancient China, the ancestors of Tajikistan and China have maintained close cooperation since the ancient Silk Road period. He said that now, from the development of microchips to the construction of space stations, China has once again shown a miracle of technological innovation.

To reduce the "mystery" between each other

However, the Global Times reporter also found during on-the-spot interviews in Central Asian countries that due to the impact of the epidemic, some Central Asian young people who had previously studied Chinese and were preparing to study in China changed to study in Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. During the interview, experts and scholars from Central Asian countries also mentioned that China and Central Asian countries have made a lot of progress in jointly cracking down on the "three forces", so that ordinary people of all countries can live and work in peace and contentment, but there are still some organizations that operate secretly in Central Asia and demagoguery people.

In addition, Central Asia is also a key area for contention between the two major powers of the United States and Russia. The United States has long pursued a policy of "containing Russia and defending against China" in Central Asia, and Russia has maintained a strong influence in Central Asia due to historical and linguistic reasons. In April 2021, the website of the weekly Kyrgyzstan Incident published an article entitled "How (the United States) Occupies a Country Without Firing a Shot", exposing how the United States has invested heavily in Kyrgyzstan to build a "media empire". The primary purpose of the United States in doing this is to confront geopolitical rivals Russia and China and increase anti-Russian and anti-China propaganda. A few years ago, when Central Asian countries revised their land laws, Western media and NGOs took the opportunity to spread rumors such as "the government will sell land to Chinese." The Global Times reporter recently inquired about a poll conducted by a Central Asian scholar with a Western background during the epidemic, except for the relatively positive "55% of respondents believe that their country was helped by China during the epidemic", other results are basically negative, which is obviously inconsistent with objective reality.

There is still a lot of room for improvement in people-to-people exchanges between China and Central Asian countries. A 2017 poll by Kyrgyzstan's National Institute for Strategic Studies on "Relations with Neighbors" showed that 65 percent of respondents wanted to develop economic ties with China first. The youth surveyed generally believe that "China is a major partner in economic development and security," and 17 percent said they should strengthen cooperation with China in the field of culture. However, there are relatively few similar polls, and some polls that can be found about "Central Asian people looking at China" or "Chinese people looking at Central Asia" were conducted six or seven years ago, which led both sides to think that the other side was still "mysterious".

An Yi suggested that civil society organizations in China and Central Asian countries should strengthen exchanges and cooperation, including exchanges between museums and libraries, support for the cause of persons with disabilities, various cultural activities, and discussion of public diplomacy. In addition, both parties can support media exchanges and make good use of social networks as a channel for rapid transmission of information. Ataeva, a Turkmenistan student studying at Zhejiang University, said: "I have been in China for six years, and I feel more and more the rapid development of China and the great opportunities in which I am located. I think that the future work can promote exchanges and cooperation between the two sides and help more Chinese friends to understand Turkmenistan and Central Asia. Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of the Kazakh Business Daily, told the Global Times that with the passage of time, the friendship between Kazakhstan and China, as well as between China and Central Asian countries, will only become stronger and deeper.

【Global Times Special Correspondent to Uzbekistan Xie Yahong, Global Times Reporter Li Qiang, Wang Wenwen, Hu Yuwei, Global Times Special Correspondent Sun Feng, Liu Yupeng】