Xinjiang – an essential link in the New Silk Road
In January, China announced plans to dramatically increase its investments in infrastructure development in Xinjiang – a mountainous and somewhat undeveloped province in the northwest of China.
This year US$24.8 billion (Bt860 billion) will be spent on new roads, up nearly six-fold from 2016, while investment in rail and air will increase by 50 per cent.
One reason for targeting Xinjiang with this massive investment is that it is rich in natural resources such as oil and gas. And more importantly, it is the only major overland route from China to central Asia and a crucial gateway for China’s New Silk Road.
It is also the weakest link in the route as the province is troubled by terrorism with members of the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang – the Uyghurs –wanting to break from China to create a separate autonomous state.
Given that Xinjiang is one of the poorest regions in China, development should help reduce poverty and thus weaken the cause of the separatists. Almost half the cities and counties in Xinjiang lack connections to the highway network and with better transport connectivity, other industries can develop such as tourism, manufacturing, and financial services – and the central government is also investing in these.
On the downside, more roads and rail lines in Xinjiang will also provide convenience for drug traffickers and weapons smugglers – an ever-present danger given that it borders potentially dangerous hotspots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Development of Xinjiang will also attract more people from other parts of China, which may create racial tensions with the local population. This has already been an issue with the development of Xinjiang’s oil industry as it brought an influx of migrant Han workers to the region, creating perceptions that the better paying jobs were going to outsiders while also disrupting local ways of life.
This is the delicate balancing act President Xi Jinping faces in Xinjiang. He hopes that economic development and trade will cool ethnic tensions, but there are concerns that they may aggravate them.
Despite the challenges, work continues on creating new routes between China and Europe.
So far almost 2,000 trains have run between Chinese and European cities, and in January a monthly direct rail freight service between China and London was launched – an 18-day journey from Yiwu in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
So it seems the dream of the new Silk Road is gradually becoming a reality.
