Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 11/5/2007
The Rising Dragon: SCO Peace Mission 2007
October 2007
Abstract
China's economic influence within Central Asia is undoubtedly growing rapidly, even as energy concerns and economic issues dominate the calculus behind Sino-Russian security cooperation and their engagement with Central Asia. In October 2005, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of the Heads of State held in Moscow, Beijing revealed the extent of its geopolitical ambition in Central Asia by offering $900 million in export credits for SCO members with a 2 percent interest and repayment over 20 years. This was seen by observers as an attempt by Beijing to fund the economies of the SCO members and to create a China-led free trade zone (Xinhua, October 26, 2005).
Since the formation of the SCO's predecessor, the Shanghai Five, in 1996, China’s interests in Central Asia, particularly in regards to security, have expanded exponentially [1]. China, in the post-9/11 security environment, has steadily advanced its international antiterrorist credentials by highlighting its own security fears in the Xinjiang province. China signed the UN protocols against terrorism, promising to assist in the global effort to confront the phenomena of terrorism. It formed bilateral intelligence cooperation agreements in order to increase counterterrorism efforts, first with Moscow, then later Astana and Bishkek. A Sino-Russian working group on counterterrorism was held in November 2001 in Beijing, with the locations alternating annually between the Chinese and Russian capitals. Beijing has also increased the emphasis on the SCO as an organization capable of coping adequately with terrorist threats. Despite the apparently common interests in Beijing and Moscow to combat international terrorism, combined with the formation of a Sino-Russia strategic partnership, some analysts have drawn attention to the fact that the Sino-Russia strategic partnership is marred by contradictions in their approaches towards Central Asia [2].
