When Xi Jinping was appointed general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in late 2012 and later as president in 2013, China was rising as an essential commerce accomplice for Central Asia with unclear ambitions towards a area historically underneath the affect of Russia.
But information compiled by RFE/RL reveals how Xi’s tenure as China’s chief has led to a wave of wide-ranging diplomatic engagement that has helped remodel Beijing’s function from influential neighbor into Central Asia’s most consequential financial accomplice — a relationship that would reshape the way forward for the area.
RFE/RL’s findings present that Xi has made 15 visits to Central Asia since 2013, probably the most by any Chinese chief.
“Under Xi Jinping, Central Asia has shifted from being viewed primarily as a buffer region on China’s border to becoming a core strategic corridor linking China to Eurasia, the Middle East, and Europe,” Bradley Jardine, managing director of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and co-author of the e-book Backlash: China’s Struggle for Influence in Central Asia, informed RFE/RL. “Xi sees Central Asia as strategically indispensable.”
Map: Xi’s Visits To Central Asia
This interval has additionally coincided with 34 bilateral visits over 13 years from the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to China.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan lead the rely at eight visits every, adopted intently by Tajikistan at seven. On prime of that, China and Central Asia have engaged by annual summits just like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the China-Central Asia Summit, which launched in 2023 as the primary official gathering between Beijing and the area that did not additionally embrace Russia.
Over the course of the Xi period, top-level engagement has been regular, however at occasions uneven. China’s chief did not go away the nation and solely held digital and telephone conferences from 2020 to 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He broke his worldwide isolation in September 2022 with a state go to to Kazakhstan adopted by the SCO summit held that 12 months in Uzbekistan.
Chart: Central Asian Presidential Visits To China, 2013-2026
A New Form Of Chinese Engagement
RFE/RL’s information highlights not solely that diplomatic engagement with Central Asia has expanded underneath Xi however that it has additionally deepened throughout all ranges.
Wang Yi, who was appointed China’s overseas minister in 2013 and held the function since then aside for a quick interval from January to July 2023, has maintained common contact with Central Asian leaders and prime officers, with some type of high-level assembly with the area happening yearly from 2013 to 2026.
Chart: Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Engagement With Central Asia
Xi’s tenure has additionally seen rising engagement between authorities officers and companies from China’s western Xinjiang Province. Xinjiang borders Central Asia and has deep historic connections, which additionally made it a supply of competition following Beijing’s crackdown launched in 2017 that led to greater than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and different Muslim minorities being put into mass detention camps.
Despite backlash amongst native populations in Central Asia, RFE/RL’s dataset reveals a sustained surge in Xinjiang-level engagement from native officers from 2023 onward, with 17 visits in 2023, 20 in 2024, and not less than 10 in 2025.
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The Xi Era Goes Live
Xi constructed on the efforts of his predecessors and shortly made Central Asia a precedence.
In 2013, he visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and whereas in Astana throughout his first 12 months in workplace he unveiled the overland element of what would later be known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the globe-spanning undertaking that opened the door for Chinese corporations and helped reorient a lot of the financial gravity of Eurasia towards China.
The underpinning of the overseas coverage initiative turned a trademark of Xi’s management, however Chinese policymakers had it within the works for years. In 2012, Wang Jisi, an influential scholar and former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, outlined a method for a large financial and diplomatic push westward throughout Central Asia to construct affect in Eurasia. Dubbed “March West,” the technique was a response to US plans to rebalance towards East Asia, and lots of of its concepts fashioned the muse for the BRI.
Chart: Types Of Visits By Xi To Central Asia, 2013-2026
The initiative was half grand technique and half opportunistic response to the fact on the bottom.
China managed to climate the 2008 international monetary disaster higher than most international locations however emerged going through overcapacity points for a lot of of its industries and needing entry to new markets. Moreover, as China overtook Japan in 2010 because the world’s second-largest financial system, many international locations throughout Eurasia had been keen to draw funding and had restricted entry from the West or Russia.
“China has really upped their game and their image across the board in all five Central Asian countries, and I believe that has been a considered policy under Xi Jinping,” George Krol, who served as US ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2011-2014 and to Kazakhstan from 2015-2018, informed RFE/RL.
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When the Soviet Union collapsed, China was grappling with the way to view its Central Asian neighbors as they navigated extreme financial hardships and waves of crises from civil battle to succession struggles.
Beijing moved cautiously within the Nineties, specializing in its financial growth at dwelling whereas slowly growing its function in Central Asia, largely resulting from Beijing’s worries over how an insecure post-Soviet Russia would react.
Chart: Central Asia Visits By Xi Jinping Vs. Hu Jintao
“There was clearly an effort across the board to bring this adjacent territory within a sphere of Chinese influence, albeit without trying to bother or to irritate the Russians,” Krol stated.
Over the subsequent decade, Chinese policymakers started to see Central Asia an increasing number of as a strategic and resource-rich space very important to its personal safety positioned alongside Afghanistan and Xinjiang.
Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor as Chinese chief, visited Central Asia on 13 state visits throughout his tenure from 2003 to 2012, based on RFE/RL’s findings. Seven of Hu’s regional visits had been to Kazakhstan, and the nation has continued to be a dominant a part of Chinese engagement with Central Asia underneath Xi.
More Than Just Top-Level Engagement
While the launch of the BRI helped characterize an period of rising Chinese affect and enterprise footprint underneath Xi, one other hallmark is the rising function of Xinjiang in diplomatic engagement with Central Asia.
“Xinjiang is no longer simply a frontier region in Chinese foreign policy. It increasingly functions as a diplomatic and logistical hub for China’s engagement with Central Asia,” stated Jardine. “Beijing is using Xinjiang as a platform for trade integration, border management, infrastructure connectivity, and increasingly political coordination with neighboring states.”
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Official delegations of Communist Party officers from Xinjiang started in 2015 however had been sluggish to develop in opposition to the backdrop of the increasing internment camp system and the COVID-19 pandemic.
But RFE/RL information reveals a gentle growth from 2023 onward after COVID-era restrictions had been eased inside China and Chinese companies had been desirous to deepen their market share overseas. Linking Xinjiang with Central Asia has been a broader Chinese coverage aim for years and has elevated following the growth of commerce hyperlinks and Chinese funding for the reason that launch of the BRI.
Chart: Central Asia Engagement By Top Xinjiang Officials
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the area’s two largest markets who even have the biggest ethnic Kazakh and Uzbek diaspora communities linked to Xinjiang, have been the first locations for delegations from Xinjiang’s prime celebration and authorities management. This represents a definite channel of subnational Chinese engagement working in parallel with Beijing’s central diplomatic equipment, with a specific deal with border administration, commerce ties, and safety cooperation.
“After years of international scrutiny over Xinjiang, Beijing appears to be shifting from a phase dominated by securitization and internment toward one focused on regional normalization and reintegration,” Jardine stated. “Increased Xinjiang diplomacy with Central Asia is part of that effort.”
Engagement throughout Xi’s tenure continues to develop. This 12 months has already seen visits to China by Turkmen chief Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. Xi can also be set to go to Kyrgyzstan in August, when it hosts this 12 months’s annual SCO summit.
How Xi Reshaped China’s Central Asia Ties — By The Numbers
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