Chinese Institutional Diplomacy toward Kazakhstan: The SCO and the New Silk Road Initiative.

• Author: Serikkaliyeva, Azhar
• Position: ARTICLE - Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Introduction

In more than thirty years of reform and implementation of open economy policies, great changes have taken place in China. With the country's high engagement with the world, it became obvious that China did not isolate itself from the global developments. The rapid growth of Chinas economy and the country's growing ties with the rest of the world necessitate the development of new concepts and approaches in the Chinese diplomacy. On January 3, 1992, the Republic of Kazakhstan set diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). The two countries share a border of 1,700 km and their relationship has developed rapidly since 1997, in connection with the growing of the economic ties. According to the Treaty on Good-Neighbor-liness, Friendship and Cooperation signed on December 23, 2002, the states develop the long-term peaceful and beneficial "win-win" cooperation. Most of the routes from China to Europe pass through Kazakhstan's broad territory, located strategically on the crossroads between Europe and Asia. As China is expanding its economic outreach to Europe, Kazakhstan wants to benefit beyond transit fees as it is trying to break away from oil dependence.

This paper is organized in five different parts. First, it discusses current concepts and approaches of the Chinese diplomacy within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and New Silk Road Economic Belt (NSREB). The second part covers Chinas policy on strengthening the stability and security at the neighboring Central Asian region through the SCO. Later it discusses the attempts of economic and humanitarian cooperation within the SCO and newly introduced economic projects within the NSREB as another away for substantive regional integration. The last two sections focus on the cultural dimension of Chinas New Silk Road Initiative and its implementation in Kazakhstan, and analyze public perception of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Kazakhstan according to the survey and Kazakhstani mass media.

Current Chinese Concepts and Approaches of the SCO and NSREB Diplomacy

China's emerging role in the international arena triggers a change in the current international political environment and causes further rebalancing of the multipolar system. Therefore, strengthening multilateral cooperation with the other regional powers and international organizations provides a suitable atmosphere for development of Chinas New Diplomacy. The basis of Chinas New Diplomacy is formed by the New Security Concept, the New Development Approach, and the New Civilization Outlook, which were introduced in the early 2000s. Chinas New Diplomacy has first been visible in Chinas diplomacy towards the Asian region, because the neighboring countries have always been crucial for Beijing to create a favorable and stable international environment. The New Security Concept encourages nations to build trust through consultations and to seek national security by means of multilateral coordination. It emphasizes: (i) multilateral ties, which stress interdependence among nations in terms of security; (ii) cooperation, which replaces confrontation as the effective route to security; (iii) comprehensiveness of security, which is not only confined to military and political fields alone, but also includes economic, technical, social and environmental fields; (iv) institutional construction, as the legitimate road to security. (1) The New Security Concept rejects power politics and the Cold War thinking. Proposed at the forum of the Central Committee of Chinas Communist Party in March 2004, by the President Hu Jintao, the New Development Approach stated that all countries should strive to achieve mutual benefit and "win-win" situations in their pursuit of development. Moreover, the New Civilization Outlook as a part of Hu Jingtao's concept of the Harmonious World encourages intercivilization dialogue and aims at building a harmonious world on the basis of equality. (2) The key idea of the concept is that each civilization has the inalienable right to choose its own and independent development path, which is suitable for its own conditions. On the other hand, the SCO, which is a successor of the Shanghai Five Mechanism encouraged by Beijing in 1996 in order to resolve the border issues among China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, initiated the practice of Chinas New Security Concept. Established in 2001, the SCO requires member states to develop state-to-state relationships based on partnerships rather than alliances. The SCO hints at new regional cooperation model under which member states coordinate their actions, however there are no treaty-based obligations in the military field. After settling border disputes, the SCO members promoted cooperation in fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism in line with Chinas New Security Concept.

In keeping with the principles of the New Civilization Outlook such as non-alignment and non-confrontation, the SCO respects the traditions of every member state and their right to independently choose their own development paths. The above-mentioned ideals were entrenched in the Charter of the Organization signed in 2002, as well as in the Declaration on the 5 (th) anniversary of the SCO inked in 2006. Since the SCO has gradually moved to explore the possibilities of economic collaboration along with security cooperation, the New Development Approach is also well expressed in the plans and actions of the organization. In 2003, the program of multilateral trade and economic cooperation among the SCO member states was signed defining the basic goals of economic cooperation within the framework of the organization. Thus, the process of establishment of the SCO started with the shaping of the Shanghai Spirit, which was first announced by the former President Jiang Zemin at the Summit of the Shanghai Five heads of state in Dushanbe in 2000. This process fully corresponds with Chinas New Diplomacy principals. The SCO was developed and institutionalized within the framework of Hu Jingtao's Harmonious World Concept. Therefore, establishment of the SCO could be considered as the first Chinese experience on the implementation of China's New Diplomacy. The transformation of the Shanghai Initiative from the Shanghai Five Mechanism to the SCO corresponds with the transformation of Chinas international diplomacy. By initiating and developing the SCO, China started focusing on multilateral relations with the Central Asian countries rather than on bilateral relations. It should be admitted that China is still in the process of developing comprehensive and multidimensional approaches of its New Diplomacy. However, there is no doubt that with its New Diplomacy, China will aim to guide the SCO and NSREB member states in their political and economic activities.

Security First: The SCO

The SCO now has China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan as its full members, with Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia as observers, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey as dialogue partners. Nowadays, the SCO brings together 18 states, which are inhabited by over 3 billion people or over 45 percent of the world population. (3) In 2015, the GDP of the SCO member states amounted to over $21 trillion, accounting for 27.1 percent of the world's total. (4) The official founding declaration asserted that the main objective of the organization was to combat the so-called three evil forces: international terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. The organization has been interpreted in a variety of ways since its inception. Some analysts agree with the views of the governments of the SCO member states that the organization is primarily focused on regional security problems. (5) Many Chinese analysts as Yu Jianhua, Director of the Institute of Eurasian Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), express the same view: the SCO is a regional organization of non-traditional security. (6) Western interpretations are quite different, as they argue that the SCO constituted a joint effort by a group of authoritarian states to defend themselves against regime change in the face of a regional democratic trend. (7) Most approaches explain the SCO geopolitical activities in terms of balance of powers. The SCO was called the "NATO of the East" (8) and "New Warsaw Pact" (9) this military approach concerned with geopolitical balancing issues in Central Asia. The SCO enables its member states to pursue diplomatic, security, economic, and soft power goals but remains primarily an institution focused on security. However, although SCO leaders agree that the organization should defend its member governments against terrorist or separatist threats, they have deadlocked over whether to respond collectively to serious but nonviolent domestic challenges such as mass protests. With only two standing organs (the RATS and Secretariat), the SCO is much less developed than other regional security organizations. It could profitably develop its crisis management capabilities, whose weakness perhaps accounted for the organizations paralysis during the July 2010 crisis in Kyrgyzstan. (10) Richard Weitz and Daniel Miller based on the theory of integration and regional cooperation considers that the SCO has actually failed to realize security goals, dismissing the SCO as a "security failure" and a "fading star." (11)

Most Chinese experts as Chien Chung, Pan Guang and Jing-Dong Yuan agree that this regional organization is largely a Chinese initiative and that China plays a leading role in the SCO process. (12) China attempted to enter and to manage this region via a multilateral approach and it is using the SCO for implementation of the "Beijing Consensus" in Central Asia. The SCO has gradually become the main mechanism or guide for Chinas policy in Central Asia. Along with the...