Vasijas conectadas: Asia Occidental y Asia Oriental en la Geopolítica de China

East Asia and West Asia (the Middle East)2 are usually treated in the academic literature as two distinct and separate issues in Chinese foreign policy. Studies of China’s policy in East Asia hardly mention the Middle East and studies of the Middle East hardly mention East Asia. In fact, these two regions are not simply interconnected in China’s geopolitical outlook but provide clues to understanding Beijing’s foreign policy toward each of them –they are interdependent. As such, they are connected vessels in the sense that the situation in one region affects, or even determines, China’s policy in the other. This is evident in a number of perspectives: strategy, economics, energy, military and Islam. Mutual dependence is one of the features of contemporary international relations, after the end of the Cold War. While usually it is limited to one aspect or two (primarily economic and military), in the case of China and the Middle East, mutual regional dependence involve a number of levels.Las regiones de Asia Oriental y Asia Occidental (Oriente Medio) son normalmente tratadas en la literatura académica como dos asuntos separados y distintos dentro de la política exterior china. Los estudios acerca de la política de China en Asia Oriental apenas si mencionan Oriente Medio, mientras que los estudios de Oriente Medio apenas mencionan Asia Occidental. Pero de hecho ambas regiones no sólo están interconectadas en la visión geopolítica de China sino que proporcionan claves para entender la política exterior de Beijing hacia cada una de ellas –esto es, ambas regiones son interdependientes. Como tales, son vasos conectados en el sentido de que la situación en una afecta, e incluso determina, la política de China con respecto a la otra. Esto es evidente desde diversas perspectivas: estratégicas, económicas, energéticas, militares, e incluso con respecto al Islam. La mutua dependencia es una de las características de las relaciones internacionales contemporáneas desde el final de la Guerra Fría, y mientras normalmente está limitada a uno o dos aspectos (fundamentalmente económico y militar), en el caso de China y Oriente Medio, la mutua dependencia regional implica bastantes niveles

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: Middle Eastern Reactions to Rising China's Uyghur Crackdown

This paper addresses the issue of China's rise in the Middle East through the prism of the Uyghur and Xinjiang issues. Given the Middle East's contemporary and vociferous denunciations of the perceived 'persecution' of Muslims throughout the globe, we would expect a harsh reaction to China's ongoing maltreatment of its Muslims in general, and the Uyghur, in particular, primarily from the centre of global Islam. This paper argues however that this has not been the case, particularly at the official level, where Middle Eastern government's have been constrained in their response to China's repression of the Uyghur by a number of factors, including China's growing strategic and economic weight in the region and their own authoritarian political practicesFull Tex

Connected Vessels: West Asia and East Asia in China's Geopolitics

East Asia and West Asia (the Middle East)2 are usually treated in the academic literature as two distinct and separate issues in Chinese foreign policy. Studies of China's policy in East Asia hardly mention the Middle East and studies of the Middle East hardly mention East Asia. In fact, these two regions are not simply interconnected in China's geopolitical outlook but provide clues to understanding Beijing's foreign policy toward each of them -they are interdependent. As such, they are connected vessels in the sense that the situation in one region affects, or even determines, China's policy in the other. This is evident in a number of perspectives: strategy, economics, energy, military and Islam. Mutual dependence is one of the features of contemporary international relations, after the end of the Cold War. While usually it is limited to one aspect or two (primarily economic and military), in the case of China and the Middle East, mutual regional dependence involve a number of levels.Las regiones de Asia Oriental y Asia Occidental (Oriente Medio) son normalmente tratadas en la literatura académica como dos asuntos separados y distintos dentro de la política exterior china. Los estudios acerca de la política de China en Asia Oriental apenas si mencionan Oriente Medio, mientras que los estudios de Oriente Medio apenas mencionan Asia Occidental. Pero de hecho ambas regiones no sólo están interconectadas en la visión geopolítica de China sino que proporcionan claves para entender la política exterior de Beijing hacia cada una de ellas -esto es, ambas regiones son interdependientes. Como tales, son vasos conectados en el sentido de que la situación en una afecta, e incluso determina, la política de China con respecto a la otra. Esto es evidente desde diversas perspectivas: estratégicas, económicas, energéticas, militares, e incluso con respecto al Islam. La mutua dependencia es una de las características de las relaciones internacionales contemporáneas desde el final de la Guerra Fría, y mientras normalmente está limitada a uno o dos aspectos (fundamentalmente económico y militar), en el caso de China y Oriente Medio, la mutua dependencia regional implica bastantes niveles

Ethno-diplomacy : the Uyghur hitch in Sino-Turkish relations

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Beginning in 1949, China responded to so-called Uyghur separatism and the quest for Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) independence as a domestic problem. Since the mid-1990s, however, when it became aware of the international aspects of this problem, Beijing has begun to pressure Turkey to limit its support for Uyghur activism. Aimed not only at cultural preservation but also at Eastern Turkestan independence, Uyghur activism remained unnoticed until the 1990s, despite the establishment in 1971 of Sino-Turkish diplomatic relations. It has gathered momentum as a result of China's post-Mao opening, the Soviet disintegration, increased Uyghur migration, the growing Western concern for human rights, and the widespread use of the Internet. Until the mid-1990s Turkey's leaders managed to defy Chinese pressure because they sympathized with the Uyghurs, were personally committed to their leader Isa Yusuf Alptekin, and hoped to restore Turkish influence in Central Asia. By late 1995, however, both that hope and Alptekin were dead, and China was becoming an influential, self-confident economic power. At this time Ankara chose to comply with Beijing's demands, which were backed by increased trade, growing military collaboration, and China's veiled threats of support for Kurdish nationalism. Consequently, Turkish Uyghurs suffered a serious blow, and some of their organizations had to relocate abroad, outside Beijing's reach. Nonetheless, Uyghur activism continues in Turkey and has become even more pronounced worldwide. Possibly less concerned about the Uyghur "threat" than it suggests, Beijing may simply be using the Uyghurs to intimidate and manipulate Turkey and other governments, primarily those in Central Asia

China’s Belt and Road Initiative Revisited: Challenges and Ways Forward

Compared with other Chinese-proposed multilateral institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not yet fully institutionalized. Still, it has been enthusiastically welcomed by many Asian and African countries, though less so by Western ones, Japan, and Russia. This is not only because of the expected economic benefits being Asian- and African-centric, but perhaps more importantly, because of the BRI having potential to be an exceptional Eastern model that may become universal. Up to the recent times, the flow of religions, doctrines, ideas and ideologies has mainly been from the West to the East, often accompanied by Western colonialism. Now, if the BRI is successfully implemented, for the first time in history a model of Eastern origin may affect the West and the rest of world. Unlike national liberation movements which had achieved political but not economic independence, China’s BRI could facilitate an international liberation movement that helps Asian and African countries to achieve growth and development, and thereby become economically independent as well. The innovation of the BRI does not only lie in its direction of influence (from the East to the West), but also in that it will be accomplished in Chinese rather than Western ways. That, more than particular economic benefits, explains the BRI’s attraction