Is Tajikistan facing a debt trap: why does China lend to Central Asia?
On May 13 of this year, Victoria Nikitina writes: “Since May 6, China has been sending troops into the territory of Tajikistan. Part of the Gorno-Badashkhan Autonomous Region of this state was given to China for debts. In Dushanbe they consider it unfit for habitation. However, China treats this territory differently, not unreasonably considering it important from a strategic point of view.” The journalist hired the head of the Center for Political Research at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Boris Shmelev, as an expert in frying facts and peppering arguments, who did not at all doubt the information about the entry of Chinese troops into Tajikistan.
In the opinion of this authoritative specialist, this case is international relations refers to “special” ones, even to symbolic events. China is strengthening its position in the world, turning economic power into political influence.
And such a failed state as Tajikistan, represented by the president, is forced to flirt with China: after all, it provides the money needed for elections. But, the analyst asks, what will the introduction of troops lead to? What should Russia do here?
The scientist advises the native government to accept what has happened as a fact and take this very fact into account in its foreign policy strategy. How to take it into account? Russia should play important role in Central Asia and allocate significant funds to support its states. If she doesn’t do this, then others will do it - the same China.
“As for the very fact of selling land for debts, I will say this: every country is sovereign, and therefore can look for forms of debt repayment that are convenient for it...”
Well, there’s no point in thinking about it, let’s add it as a joke. The President of Tajikistan can sell Tajikistan to the Chinese - and that’s all for nothing. Why does he need it? All Tajiks have been working in Russia for a long time. So the “repayment form” is very convenient.
Igor Rotar () recalls that horror stories about a Chinese offensive in Central Asia have been exciting the Russian media for several years, and now it has come to reports of the “occupation of the Pamirs by China.” It has even come to the point of the appearance of maps allegedly published in the Celestial Empire, on which China owns all of Central Asia and a significant part of Russia.
Since Dushanbe simply did not see anything about the “occupation,” the Rosbalt correspondent had to contact via social network"Odnoklassniki" with residents of Murghab. In response, he received several replies that “no Chinese” were “seen” there.
Later, on May 7, the “news” about the Chinese invasion was clarified by the Kyrgyz portal Vesti.kg. The head of the Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, Tokon Mamytov, told reporters that reports about the entry of Chinese troops into Tajikistan are nothing more than a “canard.” Mr. Mamytov stated:
“Just this morning I spoke on the phone with the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan, head of the main department of the Border Troops of Tajikistan Mirzo Sherali, and he said that the situation is stable. Moreover, to say that China occupied the Murgab region means best case scenario, do not understand the processes taking place in Central Asia. Both Dushanbe and Beijing are members of the SCO, having signed a series of documents within the framework of this organization on maintaining territorial integrity. Naturally, the information that a friendly state suddenly, out of nowhere, almost occupied the lands of its neighbor is erroneous.”
And Khairullo Mirsaidov, a columnist for the Tajik media holding Asia Plus, told Rosbalt that the rumor about Chinese expansion “was started by Russia, and is itself inflating it.” The goal of the Moscow “duck” is for Russia to return “its border guards to our border.”
By a strange coincidence, the correspondent notes, on May 8, the Russian President just signed laws on the ratification of agreements on the conditions for the presence of Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Returning to the Chinese-occupied territories of Tajikistan, we must add this.
Back on April 15, i.e., more than three weeks before the appearance of the story about Chinese expansion, a note appeared with a link to the above-mentioned Tajik resource “Asia plus”.
China received more Tajik territory than Dushanbe was given to it, said Rakhmatillo Zoirov, chairman of the National Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan. As reported on the website of the Iranian radio Sadoi Khuroson, Rakhmatillo Zoirov does not rule out that in exchange for debts to China, Tajikistan may give up another part of the territory of the Murghab region. Chinese border guards penetrated 20 km deeper into the territory of Tajikistan than previously discussed. An Iranian radio station quotes Zoyirov:
“I myself personally traveled to the Murghab region and saw that Chinese border guards in certain areas established their borders 20 km deep into Tajik territory, although Tajikistan and China agreed to transfer only 1.1 thousand square kilometers of the territory of the Murghab region.”
Mr. Zoyirov believes that the transfer of military forces and equipment to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region under the pretext of conducting anti-terrorism exercises there is connected precisely with the discussion of the transfer of part of the lands of the Murgab region to China and the debts of Dushanbe.
However, official representatives of the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan deny these rumors.
REGNUM news agency recalls that Tajikistan approved the transfer of part of the territory to the PRC in January 2011, when the parliament of the republic ratified the protocol on the demarcation of the border with the PRC, according to which 1.1 thousand square meters are allocated to China. km of disputed territories. The official ceremony of transferring the land took place in the fall of that year. The area of China increased by 1,158 square kilometers, while the territory of Tajikistan decreased by 1%.
Eduard Limonov, in his “sermon” on May 14, wrote that what is happening in Gorno-Badakhshan is “hardly accessible to observers,” since there “is not Pushkin Square,” but “mountains, and how dense they are!”
If Tajikistan transferred a territory of 1.5 thousand square kilometers to China to pay off the national debt, then Tajikistan, Limonov believes, will keep information about this secret - after all, “distributing pieces” native land will have a bad effect on the morality of Tajiks.
What about the Chinese? Why are these people silent?
And for them, writes Limonov, the dissemination of such information is also unprofitable: they “prefer to swallow up territories in silence.”
“And the fact that the Chinese are masters at moving the border deep into foreign territories is widely known. What they did on the Amur near Tarabarov Island, when they changed the course of the Amur (flooded barges and transported sand, because according to the treaty the border runs along a fairway) in order to chop off pieces of our territory is widely known. Few people know that the border with China now runs along the city beach of Khabarovsk. By God, this is so!
Limonov states:
“I reproach, and will continue to reproach, my compatriots for political frivolity and political imbecility.
They quickly enter into hysterical debates about things that are absolutely unimportant, purely Moscow-related, and ignore serious and terrible problems.
Giant China is breathing hotly and swallowing saliva, looking at the former Soviet Asia ... "
According to Limonov, the PRC is already blocking rivers (for example, the Black Irtysh) and “stealing four-fifths of the water intake for itself.” Now, having seized the Pamirs, he will control the sources of the great rivers.
And now let’s take a break from Comrade Limonov’s prose and check how the Russian military is feeling in Tajikistan: do they notice nearby Chinese hordes encroaching on Tajik uranium and other attractive territories, and are they shifting the borders somewhere? In fact, the military is the most reliable source of what is happening in the republic.
On May 13, he reported that units and formations of the 201st Russian military base stationed in Tajikistan were serving as normal.
The head of the press service of the Central Military District, Yaroslav Roshchupkin, told the correspondent about this. “Russian 201 military bases stationed in Tajikistan are operating as normal,” Comrade Roshchupkin emphasized.
Russian military personnel do not observe Chinese troops on the territory of Tajikistan.
RuNet was agitated by rumors about the “occupation” of Gorno-Badakhshan
Adherents of the concept of the “Chinese threat” have recently received a new reason to speculate about the quiet expansion of the PRC in the post-Soviet space. Rumors about the occupation of Tajik territory by troops of the Celestial Empire have excited the news space.
Several Russian media outlets immediately reprinted the message that appeared in early May in the online publication Forum.msk. Citing unnamed sources in the Tajik opposition, the publication reported that Chinese troops had captured the eastern Pamirs in the Murghab region of Tajikistan and taken control of the only highway in the region.
The publication also reported that over the years of independence, Tajikistan has already transferred 1.5 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories to China, the total area of which is 28.5 thousand square meters. km. It is also alleged that at the beginning of the year, Dushanbe, in order to pay off its external debt to Beijing, was preparing to transfer part of the Pamir highlands, which are considered uninhabitable but rich in mineral deposits precious stones, rare minerals and even uranium. Exploration work has already begun in Murghab, maps are being made and the assessment of deposits will begin in the near future, it said. edition
“No one knows exactly what the volume of uranium deposits in Badakhshan is, but it is known that there is uranium there,” noted Chief Editor FORUM.msk Anatoly Baranov. “In addition, there are many deposits of strategic raw materials, including tungsten and rare earth metals. It is true that Murghab, where there is snow even in summer, is of little use for life. But this is an important strategic point - Murghab lies on the Pamir Highway, thus the PRC will control the only transport artery in the Pamirs. In general, Tajikistan is the buckle of the soldier’s belt with which Russia holds Central Asia, and the surrender of positions in Tajikistan is the surrender of the entire region, up to Orenburg and Astrakhan. Although, when Russian border troops left the Tajik-Afghan border by Putin’s decision, it was already clear that Russia was leaving the East, and someone would definitely come in its place. China has made a request; by the time the troops withdraw from Afghanistan, it must be assumed that the United States and Great Britain will make their move. Iran and Pakistan are interested. It’s reminiscent of dividing up a dead man’s junk, some boots, some a peacoat...”
However, the information did not find any official confirmation from either the Tajik or Chinese side. However, no clear denials were made either.
A little later, the situation was clarified a little by Kyrgyz journalists from the Vesti.kg portal. As the head of the Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, Tokon Mamytov, told them, reports about the entry of Chinese troops into Tajikistan are nothing more than a “canard.” “Just this morning I spoke on the phone with the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan, the head of the main department of the Border Troops of Tajikistan, Mirzo Sherali, and he said that the situation is stable. Moreover, to say that China has occupied the Murghab region means, at best, do not understand the processes taking place in Central Asia. Both Dushanbe and Beijing are members of the SCO, which signed a series of documents within the framework of this organization on the observance of territorial integrity. Naturally, information that a friendly state suddenly, for no apparent reason, almost occupied the lands of its neighbor are wrong,” Mamytov said.
Experts have already suggested that the message could be an attempt to put pressure on Dushanbe from Moscow, which also claims influence in the region. However, it is worth noting that there are precedents for the “quiet” transfer of territories to the PRC by countries former USSR have already taken place before, so a similar scenario in Tajikistan cannot be completely ruled out.
The government of the republic gave the PRC part of the land of Tajikistan to repay the external debt.
The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan promises to become another conflict center in connection with the actions of official Dushanbe. The latter, according to Tajik oppositionists ( most of of which represents the interests field commanders GBAO - approx. author), gave hundreds of hectares of land to China to pay off external debt. Among the territories allegedly transferred to the People's Republic of China is part of the lands of the Gorno-Badakhshan Murghab region. For China, they are of particular importance because they represent an important strategic potential, allow them to control security issues in disputed territories, and, according to some sources, deposits of precious stones and minerals are located in this area.
The opposition of GBAO notes that a week ago, on May 6, official Beijing began expansion into the territory of Tajikistan, transferring Chinese military personnel to the region. They must ensure order in the process of land development by civilians. It is known that when constructing strategic facilities, developing deposits, and launching production, China practices using its own troops as labor. For example, Beijing intended to build a railway through Kyrgyzstan with the help of Chinese construction troops. A similar situation exists today in Tajikistan.
In just over 20 years of independence of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe gave up more than 1.5 thousand square kilometers of its own territories. Thus, in mid-January 2011, the parliament of the republic ratified the protocol on the demarcation of its border, essentially giving the Chinese almost 1.1 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories, which amounted to almost 0.8 percent of the territory of Tajikistan itself. It turns out that over two decades, the country’s leadership gave China about 1 percent of the total area of the state. This fact was then widely covered by media mass media two countries. Later, the same parliament amended the law “On Subsoil”, allowing foreign investors to develop deposits on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Dushanbe refused to officially confirm the fact of another transfer of land, which had already been developed by the Chinese military, but did not deny it. By the way, numerous experts periodically warned the public of Tajikistan about this, but the forecasts remained at the level of pseudo-statements. Meanwhile, as sources in GBAO assure, today China is conducting active geological exploration in Murghab and in nearby territories. The Chinese began to move into the region, and over time they may completely displace the indigenous inhabitants from the area.
“The government of Tajikistan should have held a referendum in Gorno-Badakhshan on this issue,” Khurshed Atovullo, chairman of the Center for Investigative Journalism of the Republic of Tatarstan, expressed his opinion to New Region-Asia. – I consider this deal illegal. The reaction to this government decision is visible to everyone. It is known that Badakhshan has long been considered an unstable part of Tajikistan. In all negotiations with former warlords from this region, the government of Tajikistan constantly raises the issue of the illegal transfer of part of the region to China.
The expansion is confirmed by statistics. Thus, back in 2007, according to information from the migration service of Tajikistan, about 30 thousand Chinese migrant workers entered the country and were employed in the construction of roads and electrical substations. Many of them did not return to their homeland after completing the projects and preferred to stay in the Republic of Tatarstan. At the beginning of 2010, the number of immigrants from China in the republic exceeded 80 thousand people. Claims to the lands of Tajikistan by China were recorded by historians at the end of the 19th century. It is known that in 1884, China and Russia signed an agreement called “New Margelan”, according to which the authorities of the current PRC laid claim to more than 28 thousand square kilometers of Tajik territory, of which today they managed to appropriate only a twentieth part.
The land issue in Tajikistan risks developing into ethnic conflict.
Evidence of this is the entry of troops of the People's Republic of China into the territory neighboring country. Beijing has established military control over part of the land in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) of Tajikistan. Dushanbe transferred these territories to China to pay off its external debt. It is known that the Tajik authorities gave tens of hectares of land to their Chinese partners in the Murgab region of GBAO, but the official authorities refuse to confirm this fact. In total, during the years of independence, the Chinese were given 1.5 thousand square kilometers of land, which was essentially a disputed territory.
The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region is known for its position regarding the central government. Residents of GBAO do not always obey the decisions of official Dushanbe, often causing the republican leadership to “fire” on themselves. It is worth recalling that in the summer of 2012, a conflict broke out in the autonomy, provoked by the center, in which they also died peaceful people. Gorno-Badakhshan came to the defense of its field commanders, who were being persecuted by the country's authorities. If expansion with the involvement of the military on the part of China continues, it is possible that another conflict will break out in the region, this time with a territorial overtone.
Since the beginning of 2013, many experts warned that the country’s authorities were preparing an act on the transfer of land to China, but no one took the information seriously.
The territories were given to the PRC to pay off external debt. In the future, high mountain lands will be given to China. The Chinese side needs them because they are rich in deposits of precious stones, uranium and minerals. It is known that in given time The Chinese have already begun geological exploration work in Murghab itself.
It is known that not only military personnel, but also civilians have already begun to enter the territory of Tajikistan. The latter will develop the lands where ethnic Tajiks once lived. Today there is an unspoken struggle between the parties for land, which Tajiks do not want to cede to Chinese migrants. However, they will apparently still have to do this, since there is a government document obliging the local population to leave the territory.
That's it. Immediately a bunch of questions arise in full force.
China will not miss its goal, that’s a fact. The entire territory and everything on it is used to its fullest. And all problems will be solved, including by force if necessary.
Tajikistan gave land to China to pay off its debt. The interesting thing is that they owe Russia a lot of money, but they are not going to give anything back, much less land. Moreover, with impudent faces they demand money, and more and more for our military base. At the same time, all the time talking about friendship and demanding all sorts of concessions and visa-free entry into Russia.
And also, if the population from the already transferred Chinese lands has to move, then the question is: Where will they go in droves? Guess.
These are the pies.
In mid-January, the Tajik parliament ratified a protocol on the demarcation of its border, according to which 1.1 thousand square kilometers of disputed territories are allocated to China, which is 0.77 percent of the total territory of Tajikistan. Military officials of the two countries took part in the ceremony to mark the transfer of land and exchanged souvenirs.
The transferred land contains part of the Pamir mountain range, which crosses several Central Asian countries, writes the ASIA-Plus website.
Tajikistan is one of several Central Asian states that share a border with China. Kazakhstan also borders China. Last year, Kazakhstan rejected Beijing's offer to lease a million hectares of Kazakh land along the border to grow soybeans.
82 THOUSAND CHINESE
In June of this year, it was reported that 1.5 thousand Chinese farmers would come to Tajikistan to develop two thousand hectares of land in the southern, mainly mountainous regions - Kumsangir and Bokhtar
Khatlon region - for growing cotton and rice.
The migration service of Tajikistan says that back in 2007, 30 thousand Chinese migrant workers were employed in the construction of roads, electrical substations and in mountain areas. There are claims that some Chinese workers do not return home after completing projects.
According to official data, the number of Chinese citizens in Tajikistan at the beginning of 2010 was about 82 thousand people.
NO HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Rakhim Masov, director of the Institute of History of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, a famous scientist, academician, has been a member of the Tajik-Chinese Intergovernmental Commission since 2004. Masov said in an interview with the BBC that he personally did not sign the document according to which China takes part of the territory of Tajikistan, writes the website Tajmicrant.com.
– This was a wrong decision by the government of Tajikistan. Territorial integrity and the indivisibility of our state is a matter of honor and dignity for every Tajik,” says academician Rakhim Masov.
He said that as a result of many years of work by scientists back in
During the Soviet era, it was revealed that it was in this territory of Tajikistan (Eastern Pamir) that there were large reserves of 17 types of minerals, writes the website Tajmicrant.com.
The scientist is convinced that there are no historical prerequisites for the transfer of Tajik lands to China.
“To resolve this issue, the government of Tajikistan has formed a special commission. The PRC then demanded that the lands of the Tajik Eastern Pamirs be transferred to it. Tajikistan, naturally, did not agree with this formulation of the issue. As a result of negotiations, they decided to transfer only more than 3 percent of the territory. It must be recalled that in former times the Bukhara Emirate did not have a common border with China, since Badakhshan temporarily joined Bukhara only in 1895. At that time, Russian troops were stationed in the Pamirs. The PRC had no business in this region. Both the Bukhara Emirate and the Pamirs were subordinate to the Russian Federation,” the Regnum agency quotes the historian.
Hamrokhon Zarifi, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, speaking to parliamentarians, said that China and Russia signed an agreement called “New Margelan” in 1884, according to which the authorities of what is now China laid claim to more than 28 thousand square kilometers of Tajik territory.
AKAEV WAS PUNISHED FOR TRANSFER OF LAND
The problem of resolving territorial disputes with China faced not only Tajikistan, but also Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
August 12, 2010 Askar Akayev, former president Kyrgyzstan was deprived of its immunity status for a number of crimes, including “transferring part of the original Kyrgyz lands to Kazakhstan and China.” Kazakhstan also made concessions, but society does not remember this.
Members of the Provisional Government of Kyrgyzstan called the change in the state border line with China and Kazakhstan in favor of the latter “the gravest crime” committed by Askar Akaev during his presidency.
“Because of his criminal conciliatory position on the issues of the line of the Kyrgyz-Chinese and Kyrgyz-Kazakh borders, the original Kyrgyz lands, the names of which indicate their inalienable historical belonging to the Kyrgyz people, were transferred to China and Kazakhstan,” the decree says.
Our radio Azattyk wrote that in 2001, as a result of the delimitation of the state border with Kyrgyzstan, about 600 hectares of land were transferred to Kazakhstan. But before that, Kazakhstan itself lost a number of border territories. For example, in April 1994, as a result of the agreement on the Kazakh-Chinese state border Kazakhstan transferred a territory of 946 square kilometers to China.
In 1997, the fate of two disputed areas in Almaty and East Kazakhstan regions was decided. Then China passed the territory of about 530 square kilometers.
In September 2002, Kazakhstan ceded to Uzbekistan part of the lands of the Saryagash district of the South Kazakhstan region, including the village of Turkestanets. Part of the territory of the Kyzylorda region also went to Uzbekistan. In total, the Uzbek side got about 1,700 hectares of land.
FAILED ATTEMPT IN KAZAKHSTAN
Our radio Azattyk has already reported that two years ago, in 2009, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev visited China. Then an agreement was reached on a Chinese loan of $10 billion.
After that visit, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at a meeting of the Council of Foreign Investors, announced the possible lease of 1 million hectares of irrigated land to China. However, later that year, after a violent protest from the Kazakh public, he not only abandoned the implementation of this idea, but also threatened to prosecute those who would “spread rumors on this topic.”
He referred his opponents to Article 23 of the Land Code. “It is written in black and white that the land cannot be sold to foreigners. What else can be added to this? – the President of Kazakhstan said on this resonant topic in December 2009 and never returned to it.
