ANALYSIS/OPINION:
“Central Asian countries are in desperate need of economic development, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is devoted to speeding the social development of the entire region,” professor Yang Jinhai said.
“The SCO is not a military bloc, it is not the rebirth of the Sino-Soviet Alliance of the Cold War, but an economic union to assist the people of Central Asia to overcome their underdevelopment,” he added.
During my visit to Beijing in October, Mr. Yang kindly organized a discussion for me with officials from the Chinese government and academic institutions. This consultation lasted for three hours and included Mr. Yang, the deputy secretary-general of the Compilation and Translation Bureau, a branch of the Communist Party of China that decides which foreign books are to be translated in Chinese; professor Qi Shuyu with the Chinese National School of Administration; and professor Li Kailin with China University of Political Science and Law.
The SCO came into existence in 2001 and is composed of six permanent members: China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. While not permanent members, Iran and India enjoy observer status. Iran requested full membership.
Until 1991, these countries were victims of Stalinist imperialism and remained imprisoned in the Soviet empire, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union these countries declared their independence and emerged as sovereign states.
The western borders of China cried out for stabilization and pacification for two reasons.
First, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were both political and economic power vacuums. These countries had no experience with national independence or economic modernization, although they were geographies through which the Silk Route meandered, connecting the Occident and Orient during the Middle Ages.
Second, even the eradication of the Soviet Union left a long, contiguous border between Russia and China. The security needs of both Russia and China dictated that this border be absent of conflict.
The SCO came into existence as a means to stabilize and pacify Central Asia and to ensure that the Russia-China border remain peaceful.
In addition, the vast majority of the population in Central Asia is of Muslim faith and a high percentage speak a Turkic language.
This ethnic-religious nationalism has infected the Chinese province of Xinjiang. A large portion of the population in Xinjiang is Uighar, or a people of Turkic language and heritage, and Islamic by religion. Although the government in Beijing moved large numbers of Han people into this province as a means of addressing the ethno-religious imbalance, the province remains a contentious area for the competing national-cultural differences between Han and Uighar, and Islam and Confucius.
These ethno-religious animosities gave birth to secessionist movements in Xinjiang and these extremist sentiments spawned acts of terrorism. Small segments of the Uighar Islamic population seek to secede from Han-Confucian China, and these radical pockets resort to random acts of terrorism as witnessed by actions just prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in an attempt to gain international visibility.
“China is opposed to both terrorism and secessionist movements,” Mr. Qi said. “The aim of the SCO is to promote the prosperity of Central Asia as a means to uproot these activities across the entire Central Asia area.”
“Neither China nor the SCO supported the Russian invasion of Georgia,” Mr. Li said. “Beijing did not underwrite Moscow´s exploitation of the secessionist movements in Georgia. Just as China did not encourage secessionist movements in Georgia so we are opposed to secessionist movements in Tibet.”
The economic realities of the 21st century also dictate that China act to stabilize Central Asia. Kazakhstan is so rich in oil and natural gas that pipelines will be needed to tunnel these natural resources across Central Asia to China. So China cannot allow any political turmoil in the region. Economic co-dependency also dominates Russia-China trade relations.
“China is post-Mao,” Mr. Yang said. “The SCO is not the reappearance of the Cold War Sino-Soviet Alliance.”
“The preoccupation of contemporary China is the modernization process. The population of China is 1.3 billion and we are concentrating upon economic modernization so we can feed our people,” Mr. Qi said.
Just as China has integrated itself into the global economy, it is also integrating itself into the international exchange of ideas. Wishing to engage in the international dialogue, China now supplies 10,000 students a year with scholarships to study in the West.
It also recently inaugurated a national program mandating that the study of English begin in junior high school. In about 15 years, China will be a bilingual country and Americans will be able to converse in English on the streets of Beijing.
A second Cold War will not take place. The global economy has pushed China into a post-Mao age and the primary national interest of the country is advancing its techno-industrial development, and peace is indispensable to achieving this goal.
• Norman Levine recently returned from his third trip to China. He lectured at four universities in Beijing, two universities in Taiyuan, Shenxi province, and at the University of Wuhan. He talked extensively with Chinese professors and government officials about the Chinese predicament.
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