China-Central Asia Regionalization and Its Impact on the Central Asian Region and Beyond
Karabayeva A.
11 April 2025Carleton University - Centre for European Studies
Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies
2025#18Issue 130 - 53 pp.
Since gaining independence, Central Asian countries have maintained stable and friendly relationships with China. Through China-led bilateral, regional, and multilateral projects, China and Central Asia have significantly strengthened their strategic partnership and elevated the importance of their relationship in the region-building process. As a result of these interactions, Central Asia is emerging as an active regional actor. This article characterizes China and Central Asia’s interactions as Warleigh-Lack’s (2006) “regionalization” and examines the impact of this process on diffusing China’s model of regionalism in Central Asia. Specifically, the article aims to answer the question: what are the implications of China and Central Asia’s regionalization processes for shaping the region and for the presence of a third actor, Russia? Employing Acharya’s (2004) “norm localization” analytical framework, the article argues that the current Central Asian regional cooperation model can be described as an indirect (recipient-driven) influence of China and Central Asia’s regionalization processes within the scope of the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement (SCO), bilateral strategic partnership agreements and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It posits that, of the various types of indirect diffusion of institutional and policy models of regionalism, the new Central Asian model of regional cooperation entails a “lesson-drawing” diffusion mechanism from the Chinese model of regionalism.
Central Asia , China , diffusion , regionalism , regionalization
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KIMEP University, Kazakhstan
KIMEP University
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