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| Xinjiang across Ladakh can pose new problems | | Beijing has something up its sleeve | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, FEB. 27
China is poised to further increase its military presence in the strategically situated Xinjiang region across the Kashmir-Ladakh frontier. China's "economic arm" is also being strengthened across Xinjiang. With Xinjiang bordering eight countries, the Chinese government is also working to encourage international trade in a southwesterly direction.
A new highway is under construction across the Taklamakan Desert from Alar to Khotan, and China and Pakistan have recently agreed to open four new road links through the Khunjerab Pass, doubling the number of overland routes between the two countries. Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang (earlier known as Sinkiang) is no stranger to the vagaries of international trade and machinations of major world powers.
According to diplomatic sources, Xinjiang finds itself once more a key pawn in a game of geopolitical chess, and the stakes are higher than ever. Well-worn trade routes bearing heavily laden camel caravans have been replaced by multi-lane tarmacked highways and serpentine pipelines. Bustling market towns with legendary names such as Turpan, Kashgar and Yarkand increasingly cater to foreign tourists and upwardly mobile traders from neighboring states looking to cash in on the Chinese economic miracle.
In a pointed reference to China's energy plans for the early 21st century, these sources said that the focus was on construction of a now-functional 4,200-kilometer east-west network of gas and oil pipelines running all the way from Xinjiang to Shanghai. In May 2006, oil was pumped directly into Xinjiang from Kazakhstan for the first time, along a recently completed 960km cross-border pipeline. When fully functional, this pipeline will carry 20 million tonnes of Kazakh oil a year, accounting for 15 per cent of China's imports for 2005. It is just part of a 3,000km project that aims to join China to the Caspian Sea, thereby removing the need for China's Middle Eastern oil supplies to navigate several potentially risky sea lanes.
Driven by the need to sustain a booming and energy-hungry economy, the Chinese government has made securing access to the largely untapped reserves of oil and natural gas in Central Asia a cornerstone of its economic policy for the next two decades. China's ever expanding pipeline network has the potential to bring about a significant strategic realignment of Xinjiang and the adjacent region. Central Asia, with its huge reserves of oil, gas and minerals, has already seen some sharp rivalry among the United States, Europe and Japan. All of the major powers, in conjunction with multinational corporations, are seeking to secure alliances, concessions and possible pipeline routes in the area.
Oil and gas pipelines to China from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan could easily be extended to link into the pipeline networks of both Russia and Iran. This model has been dubbed the "Pan Asian Global Energy Bridge" - a Eurasian network of pipelines linking energy resources in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia through to China's Pacific coast. A major part of the old Silk Route is inexorably turning into the "Black Gold Route" of the new millennium.
Reports from across the India-China border say that in addition to its role as a conduit and supplier of fossil fuels, Xinjiang is experiencing rapid growth in cross-border trade, and the autonomous region has become a bridgehead promoting China's economic and trade ties with Central Asia and Russia. Trade between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan in 2005 was valued at more than 6 billion US dollars, accounting for 73 per cent of the total trade between the two countries, and it is predicted that the value of all Xinjiang's foreign trade will top 9 billion dollars this year.
The Chinese government is also planning to build several new highways into Nepal from Tibet, to supplement the existing Kodari Highway and increase access to northern India. On July 6, 2006, the border between India (Sikkim) and China (Tibet) at Nathu La was opened to trade for the first time in 44 years. China's trans-border highways are no longer mere conveniences for the People's Liberation Army, but instruments for the expansion of Chinese economic influence into the subcontinent, breathing new life into the former Silk Route's southern branches.
The huge Chinese infrastructure investment in Xinjiang has been accompanied by a boom in tourism. The increasingly accessible Taklamakan dunes, snow-covered mountains, clear glacial lakes, fabled oasis towns and distinctive Uighur culture are proving a major drawing card for both foreign and Chinese tourists. According to the Xinjiang Tourism Bureau, the region received 88 tourists and earned 46,000 dollars in 1978. Last year, it hosted more than 310,000 overseas travelers and recorded a foreign-exchange income of nearly 91 million dollars, a 1,000-fold increase.
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