What is China's strategy for Central Asia?

"Prior to the pandemic, China was on its way to be the biggest trading partner for all Central Asian countries, and while the numbers dipped dramatically during the pandemic, I would expect China to be back as the top trading partner over the next year or so," said Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Yau from the Atlantic Council told DW that the visa-free regime is connected to the opening of Central Asian exports to China, as countries in the region have been trying to sell a bigger variety of products to China for years. " is a card that China will play with Central Asia, and this can't be done without the free flow of businessmen," she said, adding that China had already established similar agreements with nations in Southeast Asia. "What's important to China about Central Asia is the fact that it's next to Xinjiang, and therefore, Xinjiang's development is quite intimately connected to this part of the world," Pantucci told DW. Will China play a bigger role in security? " answer in dealing with security threats wouldn't be the same as what the Russians might do, which is to mobilize or deploy a large number of troops," he said, adding that China is not an expansionist power in the region. Yau from the Atlantic Council added that rather than aiming to replace Russia's security role in Central Asia, China is introducing new ideas of security, such as protest management and surveillance. "China is exporting these norms to Central Asia, and we are seeing the civic space rapidly shrinking in countries like Kyrgyzstan, which traditionally has the best civil society in the region," she told DW. "This is a direct reflection of the fact that Central Asian countries have chosen to go down the path with Russia and China. At a time when Russia is not able to provide as much to Central Asia as they did before, China steps in and gives Central Asian leaders a lot of investment and reassurance," Yau concluded.