Weiqing Song - Chinas Approach to Central Asia

This book examines, comprehensively, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the regional organisation which consists of China, Russia and most of the Central Asian countries. It charts the development of the Organisation from the establishment of its precursor, the Shanghai Five, in 1996, through its own foundation in 2001 to the present. It considers the foreign policy of China and of the other member states, showing how the interests and power of the member states determine the Organisations institutions, functional development and relations with non-members. It explores the Organisations activities in the fields of politics and security cooperation, economic and energy cooperation, and in culture and education, and concludes with a discussion of how the Organisation is likely to develop in the future. Throughout, the book sets the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the context of Chinas overall strategy towards Central Asia.

Weiqing Song is Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Public Administration at the University of Macau, China.

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.

143 Social Attitudes in Contemporary China

Yu Chen, Wei Fang, Liqing Li, Paul Morrissey and Chen Nie

144 Media Power in Hong Kong

Hyper-Marketized Media and Cultural Resistance

Charles Chi-wai Cheung

145 The Identity of Zhiqing

The Lost Generation

Weiyi Wu and Fan Hong

146 Teacher Management in China

The Transformation of Educational Systems

Eva Huang, John Benson and Ying Zhu

147 Social Entrepreneurship in the Greater China Region

Policy and Cases

Yanto Chandra

148 Chinas Approach to Central Asia

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation

Weiqing Song

149 Chinas Peasant Agriculture and Rural Society

Changing Paradigms of Farming

Jan Douwe van der Ploeg and Jingzhong Ye

150 Chinas Changing Economy

Trends, Impacts and the Future

Edited by Curtis Andressen

151 Chinas Energy Security

A Multidimensional Perspective

Edited by Giulia Romano and Jean-Franois Di Meglio

152 Chinese Muslims and the Global Ummah

Islamic Revival and Ethnic Identity Among the Hui of Qinghai Province

Alexander Blair Stewart

153 State Propaganda in Chinas Entertainment Industry

Shenshen Cai

154 Assessing the Balance of Power in Central-Local Relations in China

Edited by John Donaldson

155 Television Regulation and Media Policy in China

Yik Chan Chin

156 Space, Politics, and Cultural Representation in Modern China

Cartographies of Revolution

Enhua Zhang

157 The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong

Sustaining Decentralised Protest

Yongshun Cai

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Weiqing Song

First published 2016

by Routledge

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2016 Weiqing Song

The right of Weiqing Song to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-138-78078-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-77048-2 (ebk)

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As a native of Shanghai, I have a clear memory of the first Shanghai Five summit in 1996 and the inaugural summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2001. Even when I was a layman of international relations as an academic field, I was curious about this international event that attracted leaders and diplomats from Russia and several Central Asian countries. Although these countries are geographically close to China, they are unfamiliar to ordinary Chinese people due to longstanding political separation. Nevertheless, the Chinese people are proud of this first and only international organisation named after a Chinese city, particularly as the SCO has become more visible internationally as it has developed.

After I embarked on my academic career as a professional international relations specialist, my interest in the SCO became more scholarly. The SCO is the first inter-governmental organisation largely initiated and driven by China. In this respect it is quite unusual, considering Chinas age-old doctrine of bilateralism and suspicion of Western-dominated multilateral cooperation. From the perspective of foreign policy analysis, this change alone deserves special attention. The SCO also refreshes Chinese analysts memories of the historical links between China and Central Asia associated with the legendary Silk Road. Most Chinese learn about the Silk Road in school history classes and it seems that people today only think of it as part of history. Nevertheless, the Silk Road story is central to Chinese peoples feelings about the glorious past of their country and civilisation. Through this difficult yet enduring route people living far apart were able to exchange goods, ideas and cultures until the Silk Road finally became obsolete in the Cold War era.