Xiplomacy: China-Central Asia cooperation: Palmy past, rosy future

Photo taken on September 13, 2022 shows the entrance to the 100-MW Zhanatas wind farm near the city of Zhanatas in the Zhambyl Region, Kazakhstan. [Dmitry Vasilenko, Xinhua]

. Go green together

Maksat Abilgaziev, 33, is a Kazakh born and raised in Zhanatas, a run-down town in the country's south that was once the thriving center of phosphate mining and fertilizer production.

In 2020, Abilgaziev quit his electronic engineering job at a local phosphate mine, and became a wind power engineering trainee at the Chinese-built Zhanatas wind farm, one of the largest of its kind in Central Asia.

"Our Chinese friends have brought equipment, investment, technology and experience to Kazakhstan. They have also cultivated clean energy talents in our country. The wind power projects have created jobs and tax revenues for Zhanatas, bringing the town back to life," rejoiced Abilgaziev, whose income has more than doubled in three years.

The studious and industrious man, now a senior at the wind farm, told Xinhua that it was the dream for a better future that prompted his decision for a career change.

Clean energy, including wind power, is what the future holds for Zhanatas, and Kazakhstan at large and what the future should look like, he said.

"We should pursue the new vision of green development and a way of life and work that is green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017. "We propose the establishment of an international coalition for green development on the Belt and Road, and we will provide support to related countries in adapting to climate change."

To put words into action, China has fully integrated the Belt and Road Initiative with Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" new economic policy, and launched 52 cooperation projects with the Central Asian country, with the Zhanatas wind farm as one of the flagship projects.

Put into operation in 2021 with a capacity of 350 million kWh of electricity annually, the wind farm is expected to save about 110,000 tons of standard coal per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, compared with thermal power plants.

Another signature project of green cooperation between China and Central Asia is the 100 MW solar power plant seated in the town of Kapchagay in southeastern Kazakhstan's Almaty Region. The plant, jointly invested and built by a Chinese enterprise and Kazakh partners, is one of the largest photovoltaic power generation projects in the country, reducing carbon emissions by 160,000 tons per year.

"With more green cooperation, I believe that in the future, the sky will be bluer, the water will be clearer, and the earth we live on will be cleaner," said Abilgaziev.

This photo taken on April 29, 2023 shows a view of the historical sites in Khiva, Uzbekistan. [Xinhua]

Handshake of cultures

On a refreshing autumn day in September 2022, Xi held talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the International Conference Center in Samarkand, during which a small gift was presented by China to Uzbekistan. The gift turned out to be a miniature of the ancient city of Khiva, which celebrates the two countries' joint efforts to restore the cultural heritage of the ancient Silk Road.

"The preservation and restoration of historical sites in Khiva, a project launched during my visit to Samarkand in 2013, has been successfully concluded, further augmenting the charm of this ancient city," Xi said in a signed article published on Uzbek media ahead of his state visit to Uzbekistan.

"I'd give a bag of gold to visit Khiva," goes a Central Asian saying.

Located in southwestern Uzbekistan, Khiva, a shining pearl on the ancient Silk Road, was built in the 10th century and inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in the 1990s. However, due to disrepair, some ancient buildings of the cultural relic sustained damage in varying degrees.

Following Xi's Uzbekistan visit in 2013, China and the Central Asian country announced they would be working together to restore the Amir to'ra madrasasi, the Hasan Murod Qushbegi Mosque and their surroundings in Khiva. A Chinese team arrived at the site in May 2014, and with expertise and dedication to preserving history, the team members had overcome difficulties and successfully completed the restoration work with a minimal intervention approach.

"Our Chinese colleagues do their work very carefully, with love and with all their soul, and try to keep everything in its original form," said Abdullayev Masharib Saydamatovich, deputy director of Center for Promotion of Science of Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. "Cultural cooperation with China does not stop there. It continues, and restoration work has been singled out as one of the main directions."

True, joint restoration on Khiva only stands as one of the many epitomes of cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Central Asian countries. Another dazzling example is the Luban Workshop in Dushanbe, a Chinese vocational workshop program training talents in Tajikistan. The workshop, officially going into service in November 2022, is the first of its kind in Central Asia.

"China's Luban Workshop is recognized as an international vocational education brand worldwide. We believe that Luban Workshop will be of great help to Tajik Technical University in training talents in measurement, green energy and heating, and can promote cooperation and exchanges between the two universities in all aspects," said Shahriyor Sadullozoda, vice rector of Tajik Technical University.

(Xinhua reporters Zhang Jiye in Astana, Guan Jianwu in Bishkek, Li Ao in Tashkent, and Han Liang, Sun Hao and Chen Yin in Beijing also contributed to the story.)