China, Central Asia chart shared path to modernization

BEIJING, June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from People's Daily:

Modernization is a shared aspiration of China and Central Asian countries. At a time when the century-defining transformation is accelerating across the globe, with multiple risks compounding one another, a key question looms: How can China and Central Asia continue to support each other and move forward on the path toward modernization? The second China-Central Asia Summit provides timely answers.

In recent years, under the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, the China-Central Asia mechanism has yielded tangible results, reinforcing the confidence and resolve of both sides in overcoming difficulties and pursuing a shared future.

Launched five years ago, the China-Central Asia mechanism was upgraded to the level of head of state in January 2022. In May 2023, during the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit, the heads of state of China and the five Central Asian countries jointly signed the Xi'an Declaration, officially institutionalizing the mechanism.

At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "four principles" for building a China-Central Asia community with a shared future and "eight proposals" for advancing cooperation, charting a clear direction and roadmap for building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

The China-Central Asia relationship is steeped in history, driven by broad actual needs, and built on solid popular support. Over the past three decades, the relationship has progressed from good-neighborly friendship to strategic partnership, and now to the joint building of a community with a shared future. China and Central Asian countries firmly support each other on core issues of sovereignty, independence, security, and territorial integrity, and respect each other's choice of development path based on their national conditions.

The partnership manifests through concrete synergies like Kazakhstan's wheat transforming into artisanal noodles in Xi'an's culinary landscape, while Yangling's horticultural expertise elevates Uzbekistan's fruit cultivation. This agricultural symbiosis reflects broader complementarity: Central Asian commodities flow eastward through enhanced trade corridors, while Chinese agricultural technology transfers westward via cooperative platforms, creating vertically integrated value chains.

In a global environment where development opportunities are increasingly constrained, enhancing cooperation to foster new growth drivers is a strategic imperative. Since the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit, the two sides have been accelerating the alignment of development strategies, advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and enhancing collaboration in emerging sectors such as the digital economy, green development, and technological innovation - putting regional integration on a fast track.

The steady operation of China-Europe freight trains, the progress of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor, the transition of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway from blueprint to reality, and the expansion of energy pipelines, cross-border fiber optic cables, and air routes have all significantly enhanced connectivity between China and Central Asia. This growing network has driven trade growth and reinforced the resilience of industrial and supply chains. In 2024, trade between China and Central Asia reached a record high of $94.8 billion.

For Central Asian countries, industrialization is not just an economic priority, but a matter of strategic autonomy. Chinese investment, production capacity, and technologies are playing a critical role in supporting Central Asia's drive toward industrialization. China is already a major investment source in the region, with cumulative investment exceeding $30 billion.

Amid a new wave of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, China and Central Asian countries are working together to ensure innovation benefits all. China is also sharing its experience in poverty alleviation and vocational training, helping Central Asian countries strengthen their capacity for self-sustained development.

Chinese modernization offers valuable reference for countries seeking development paths tailored to their national conditions, fostering increasingly frequent and in-depth exchanges on governance and policy-making.

The China-Central Asia mechanism is guided by openness and inclusiveness. It is not a closed or exclusive club, but is a joint initiative of the six countries and looks outward to the world. Moving away from bloc politics and Cold War confrontation, the cooperative philosophy and institutional arrangements upheld by China and Central Asia offer the right direction for a world at a historical crossroads.

At a time when some countries seek to decouple economies, sever supply chains, and set up barriers, China and Central Asian countries remain committed to upholding the multilateral trading system, building an open world economy, and promoting a universally beneficial, inclusive economic globalization.

With Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan officially joining the BRICS family this year, voices from the Global South are growing louder and more influential. On multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, and the BRICS mechanism, China and Central Asian countries have always stood together to defend the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and build a more just and equitable international order.

As the second China-Central Asia Summit ushers in a new chapter, China and Central Asian countries are embarking on a new journey together. Bound by a shared aspiration of modernization and a common vision for the future, they are writing a grand new chapter in advancing regional and global peace, stability, and prosperity.