Soon after 2008, Beijing became the largest trading partner of Central Asia, and Chinese loans and investments in the region began to increase and diversify between countries and sectors of the economy. China positioned itself as a major creditor, investor, and provider of infrastructure services for Central Asian countries, especially Tajikistan. In return for its economic assistance and good diplomatic relations, Beijing now seeks gold mines, rare earth metals, and access to the uninhabited terrains of Tajikistan
@Kunal_Chonkar
New Delhi: Good relations with Dushanbe, have not deterred Beijing from eyeing Tajikistan lands. While cooperation between China and Tajikistan has increasingly gained pace in recent years, Beijing since January has started to slowly unchain its pets – state-run media outlets – on Dushanbe. Chinese media in the past three months have not only turned increasingly aggressive on Tajikistan’s leadership but are dishing out conspiratorial-type of disinformation on its sovereignty.
While on one hand, President Xi Jinping continues to extend economic assistance to Prime Minister of Tajikistan Qohir Rasulzoda, on the other hand, Beijing-puppeteered media continues to manipulate factual information, stoking division in the lands, sowing public doubt about expertise and spreading rumours.
It all started in the first week of January, with the Chinese media announcing that Tajikistan is originally part of the motherland. On 3 January, the online news portal ‘Flower – a reflection of history’ published an article that asserted that Tajik lands belonged to mainland China.
The author (anonymous) of the article stated that ‘since Han’s reign, China began to conquer small neighbouring states and opened the Great Silk Road. In the era of the Qin and Tang Empire, Tajikistan was part of China.’ He did not provide any historical facts or evidence to support his claim. Refusing to limit the flight of his fantasy only to Tajikistan, he also said that ‘later, China seized lands from Hutan to the east of the Persians empire – now this territory is called Central Asia.’
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However, these revelations of the Chinese pseudo-historian did not elicit large-scale resonance. The Foreign Ministry of Tajikistan sent a note to his counterpart in China, following which the pages of the publication removed the controversial article from the website. China’s diplomatic office in its formal reply said that ‘these articles do not reflect Beijing’s official position.’ While it looked like the issue had sorted out, two nuances continued to stay afloat. The first – Beijing did not react to this minor incident and preferred to remain silent, and the second – this is not the first article of its kind.
Precious Pamir
In July 2010, Chinese journalist Chu Yao Lu posted a piece with the long and pretentious title ‘Tajikistan initiated the transfer to China lands, and the lost mountains of Pamir were returned to the true master.’ The title is a chrestomathic example of the primary skills of fabrication. The article was reprinted by several media outlets in China and openly discussed in talk-shows featuring former and current CPC representatives.
In January 2011, the Tajikistan-China Intergovernmental Commission signed a protocol on the transfer to Beijing part of the disputed territory in Murgab (eastern Pamir) with an area of 1,158 square kilometres. The then Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, speaking to members of parliament, called the action ‘a major diplomatic victory.’ He said that China had claimed a much larger area, however was only handed three percent of the land. It remains, however, unclear as to why such a ‘large-scale diplomatic success’ was kept under the carpet by Tajik authorities for almost a year.
Tajikistan’s late academician Rahim Masov, the only member of the intergovernmental commission who had refused to sign the land protocol, seemed to know China’s stratagem behind the Murgab deal. Masov, who headed the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, had drawn the attention of the commission, toward the presence of large reserves of 17 types of minerals and other rare earth metals in the subsoil of the disputed territory.
The area in the Murgabian region of eastern Tajikistan was not the only stumbling block in relations between Tajikistan and China. In 1999, the two sides had signed the agreement on the ‘Tajik-Chinese State Border.’ As part of the document, the countries were able to resolve the situation with two disputed precincts. Tajikistan retained jurisdiction over the area at the Karzak Pass but ceded to China about half of the other stretch near the Markansu River with a total area of 400 square kilometres.
Soft Attacks of Dragon
At the first glance, the manipulation of facts and widespread misreporting on border regions by Chinese media about the former affiliation of Central Asian countries to the Chinese Empire are not as harmless as they seem. While Beijing continues to officially distance itself from such information warfare, the deep impact of such tactics needs to be carefully deciphered.
In mid-2020, the agency ‘Waves of Communication of China’ posted an article ‘How do Chinese Tajiks differ from Tajiks of Tajikistan?’ The authors drew analogies between the way of life of the population of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO) and the Tashkurgan-Tajik Autonomous County. Among other things, the text of the article carried a phrase reading – ‘this is why mountain Tajiks are always fighting for the independence of their tribe.’ This phrase indicated the need to resist the actions and policies of the central government, whose position on the GBAO is traditionally weakened.
Despite the information warfare, the most effective tool of Beijing for gradual penetration into neighbouring countries continues to be the economic expansion in the form of loans and grants. In order to pay back the loans received, the Tajik leadership granted Chinese company TBEA licenses for the development of two goldfields – ‘Upper Kumarg’ and ‘Upper Duoba.’ Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of these fields was suspended, but according to an official report, they are scheduled to re-launch the work in December. The work will be led by a team of geologists and subterranean experts from China.
Beijing has also been deploying civilian ‘specialists’ to establish equipment and train local workers. These specialists have started assimilating with the Tajik crowd. Having completed their objective, these specialists then become a kind of ‘tunnel’ for the infiltration of their compatriots into Tajik lands.
Soon after 2008, China replaced Russia as the largest trading partner of Central Asia, and Chinese loans and investments in the region began to increase and diversify between countries and sectors of the economy. Beijing positioned itself as a major creditor, investor, and provider of infrastructure services for Central Asian countries, especially Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Today, the Chinese government and Exim bank are the main creditors of Tajikistan. The Republic’s total debt to them exceeded $1.1 billion. The total foreign debt of the republic is $3.7 billion dollars, which is 43.3 percent of the GDP.
In return for its economic assistance and good relations, Beijing now seeks gold mines, rare earth metals, and access to the uninhabited terrains of Tajikistan through its pen sharks.
