The fourth is to support the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries, supporting them to choose an independent development path, ensuring that they become China’s good-neighborly and friendly zone. It is the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent development of relations between China, Russia and Central Asian countries that greatly improved China’s strategic security environment. This is also an important prerequisite for China to focus its strategic efforts on economic development and national modernization. Based on the strategic interests, China’s geopolitical interests in Central Asia include maintaining the strategic stability and security of the region, preventing the emergence of any strategic threat or politicomilitary group in the region for China and opposing military competition among outside military forces in Central Asia.
II. The Main Principles of China’s Strategy toward Central Asia
The “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence”, the “Harmonious World” and the “Shared Future” are the core concepts of China’s foreign strategy in the past 40 years of reform and opening up. Starting from these concepts, China’s Central Asia strategy should follow the following main principles:
Firstly, relations between Central Asian countries should be handled by peaceful means without force or threats of force, and are committed to consolidating mutual trust with Central Asian countries through all-round cooperation. China pursues the foreign policy of “being a good neighbor and partner” and “build an amicable, tranquil and prosperous neighborhood”. When China and Central Asian countries develop cooperation, they highlight the word “goodness”. It reflects the traditional concept of Chinese diplomacy and the essence of pursuing world peace. Peace is one of the basic properties of China’s diplomacy in Central Asia. The peaceful nature of China’s diplomacy in Central Asia does not simply refer to its external form, but more importantly its spiritual connotation. Cooperation is a positive and constructive gesture. It indicates that China has positioned itself as a builder and partner to develop a relationship with Central Asian countries in a constructive manner. The second is to adhere to the principle that countries, no matter big or small, should respect each other. Central Asia is a relatively weak surrounding area for China, but in the course of mutual exchanges in the past 30 years, China and Central Asian countries fully considered the relationship of “Serve a small country as a great one”. China always considers Central Asian countries’ feelings and needs when we get along. In bilateral relations with Central Asian countries, China understands the weak position of Central Asian countries. In this way, China can understand the sensitivity of Central Asian countries to self-esteem and pay special attention to political, economic and security interests in bilateral relations. This will enable China to consciously pay attention to maintaining political equality and play a more constructive role in security and economy. China adheres to the“win-win”approach, especially in economic cooperation. At the beginning of independence of Central Asian countries, everything needed to be rebuilt，and foreign help is badly needed to help within its capacity to Central Asian countries. When they face difficulties or need assistance, China can give a helping hand each time without any political conditions.
China fully understands and respects the “multiple balanced”diplomatic theory and practice of Central Asian countries. After independence, the Central Asian countries chose the balanced policy and multilateral diplomacy, although the diplomatic focus and inclination of the countries were different. Turkmenistan chose the principle of “active neutrality”. This is not accidental, which has both the influence of historical traditions and the requirements of realistic conditions. China believes that Central Asia should become an open region and support the “diversified diplomacy” of Central Asian countries. China needs to take into consideration the factor of the pluralistic diplomacy of Central Asian countries. Balanced and pluralistic diplomacy will be the most likely choice for Central Asian countries unless there is a major geopolitical change. Balanced and diversified diplomacy has important implications for China. It means that developing relations with China is an important, but not the only option for Central Asian countries; Central Asian countries regard China as an important partner, but will not “turn toward” China; Central Asian countries are not only expecting, but also limiting China’s development in Central Asia. They may use China to balance other big powers, and at the same time use them to counterbalance China. For China, it understands the rationality of diversified diplomacy to Central Asian countries and knows that it does not aim at China. It is not necessary to be too suspicious and sensitive, leading to a shackle of deeper development and relations with Central Asia. At the same time, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the restrictive role of diversified diplomacy in China. Diversified diplomacy is both a challenge and an opportunity for China. China will always be one of the “directions” of Central Asian countries. Moreover, China will always be one of the most important “directions” of Central Asian countries due to China’s geographical and geopolitical advantages, which may give it more opportunities than other big powers.
The third is to adhere to the
