Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Screenshot from YouTube.
This article was submitted as part of the Global Voices Climate Justice fellowship, which pairs journalists from Sinophone and Global Majority countries to investigate the effects of Chinese development projects abroad. Find more stories here.
Out of the five Central Asian states, China has experienced the fiercest backlash to its growing influence in Kyrgyzstan, with which it shares borders to the west. This has manifested in multiple anti-Chinese protests, violent clashes between locals and Chinese workers, raids by nationalists to identify and deport “illegal” Chinese migrants, and a cancellation of an investment project worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
A map showing China (green) and its neighbor to the west, Kyrgyzstan (orange). Image from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Strikingly, the backlash has unfolded in parallel with China’s surge as Kyrgyzstan’s most important economic partner. Over the years, China has become Kyrgyzstan’s main creditor, largest investor, and biggest trading partner. In 2023, the two sides elevated their ties to the comprehensive strategic partnership status. The bilateral cooperation covers mining, agriculture, energy, transport, construction, trade, and many other spheres. It is hard to overestimate China’s importance for Kyrgyzstan,
For its part, China frames trade ties with Kyrgyzstan as the revival of a friendship between two peoples. Chinese state media CCTV said:
中吉雙方將不斷加強文明交流互鑒，增進兩國人民福祉，鞏固兩國傳統友誼. 合作之路、友誼之路、繁榮之路形成廣泛共識.
China and Kyrgyzstan will continue to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, improve the well-being of the two peoples, and consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries. A broad consensus has been reached that the path of cooperation, friendship, and prosperity will lead to a shared future.
The outlet added that China’s “New Silk Road” and “Belt and Road Initiative,” its series of international connectivity and infrastructure development projects, will improve cooperation between the two countries and cement their relationship as “good neighbors, good partners, good friends, and good brothers” (好鄰居、好夥伴、好朋友、好兄弟).
Portrait of Bradley Jardine. Used with permission.
Global Voices conducted a written interview with Bradley Jardine, a co-author of the book “Backlash: China’s Struggle for Influence in Central Asia,” to explore factors fueling the backlash to China, discuss how the resistance to Chinese projects has changed over time, and understand how China has adapted and changed its approach in the country. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Global Voices (GV): Over what issues has China experienced backlash in Kyrgyzstan? Which groups have been the most vocal and active opponents?
Bradley Jardine (BJ): Backlash has been caused by a range of factors. Concerns over China’s impact on corruption, damage to the environment by Chinese companies, and the rights of Kyrgyz workers at Chinese firms are all prevalent. Given the countries share a border, concerns over creeping migration and control of land are particularly salient.
Although there are only around 9,000 Chinese workers in Kyrgyzstan, rumors swirl that there are almost 100,000, with conspiracy theories that they are paid by the Chinese government to marry Kyrgyz women in a plan to slowly colonize the country.
This is exacerbated by Chinese nationalist historians who claim the Qing dynasty ceded parts of what is now Kyrgyzstan to Tsarist Russia as part of the “unequal treaties” of the nineteenth century. Their work often goes viral in Central Asia and triggers diplomatic and public relations crises that regional governments and China have to conduct damage control to contain.
Kyrgyzstan’s trade imbalance with China and growing debt dependence, with China owning over one-third of the country’s foreign debt, also feed into this narrative of slow colonization.
These narratives are being pushed by different groups, including opportunistic politicians looking to tap into popular concerns. Before becoming president in 2020, populist politician Sadyr Japarov criticized China’s stranglehold over the country’s mining sector. More violent nationalist groups, such as Kyrk Choro, or Forty Knights, have targeted Chinese workers, conducting their own raids on businesses to identify “illegal” migrants. While they aren’t mainstream, they are responding to broad perceptions about China held by many people.
GV: What is the role of environmental and climate concerns in the backlash to China’s projects in Kyrgyzstan?
BJ: While China has claimed that it wants to green the Belt and Road Initiative and frames itself as at the forefront of the sustainable development revolution, in reality, its investments have significantly damaged the environment across Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan.
Our protest data, presented in our recent book, indicates that over two-thirds of the protests in the region between 2018 and 2021 targeting foreign actors focused on China.
For Kyrgyzstan, the most significant targets were Chinese companies in the oil, gas, and mining sectors, where they have been accused of spreading pollution and leaking toxic substances, which have caused health problems, decreased crop yields, and poisoned water supplies.
For example, the Chinese-owned Junda refinery in Kara-Balta has been fined for releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Additionally, it polluted the water system and was blamed by local farmers for decreasing crop yields. At the Solton-Sary gold mine in Naryn, run by Chinese company Zhong Ji, locals complained that their livestock was dying off. Chinese companies are viewed as particularly damaging to local ecosystems.
GV: What forms has this backlash taken (riots, protests, petitions, attacks, lobbying, online campaigns)? How has it changed over time?
BJ: Backlash takes a myriad of forms, from single-person pickets to critical posts on social media and large-scale, often violent protests. Kyrgyzstan’s political environment has been particularly fraught when compared with its neighbors, and protests have been more violent. This peaked in October 2020, when contested elections caused a power vacuum. Within this context, Chinese businesses were disproportionately targeted by angry locals, who burnt down plants, barricaded businessmen in their hotels, and extorted Chinese workers at gunpoint.
Overall, backlash against China has decreased over the past five years. Since Japarov has come to power, the regime has strengthened its powers, cracking down on civil society, media, and protest movements. Protests have been banned in the center of the capital city, Bishkek, since March 2022, a site of previous anti-China protests.
As a result of these restrictions, protests have decreased. At the same time, according to polling data from the Central Asia Barometer, negative opinions of China have decreased from a peak of almost 50 percent in 2020 to just over 25 percent today.
Several possible explanations exist, including the authoritarian turn in the country affecting respondents’ willingness to answer openly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine making Beijing look more appealing as a partner, and the successes of China’s soft power push in the country, which we discuss below.
GV: Why has China faced backlash over its influence in Kyrgyzstan? Is it due to the lack of transparency, poor communication, corruption, or other reasons?
BJ: China faces backlash because of the role that companies play in damaging the environment, fueling corruption, and the opaque nature of its dealmaking, which feeds into conspiracy theories. But this is exacerbated by China being perceived by many as culturally distant (when compared with Russia or Turkey), despite the country’s sharing a border. There is a lack of knowledge about China for many, making it easy for rumors to spread.
Much of the Sinophobia is being driven by the rising nationalism in the country, with China framed as a “foreign” power seeking to undermine the country’s independence and ethnic homogeneity.
China’s repression of its indigenous Muslim population in Xinjiang has also generated some backlash from human rights activists and conservative Islamic influencers who frame China as “the enemy of Islam.”
GV: How has the backlash affected China’s presence and approach to the region?
BJ: China is aware of how backlash can frustrate its plans. Most notably, in 2020, the Kyrgyz government cancelled a USD 280 million logistics terminal on the border with China after local protests. It has adapted in several ways.
First, it has increased its security presence in the region, providing arms, training, and military aid to the Kyrgyz security forces to help them maintain stability. Unlike other countries in the region, Kyrgyz law permits the operations of foreign private security companies. At least six PSCs now operate in the country, with the most prominent, Zhongjun Junhong Group, having obtained a permit to use firearms in 2016.
In addition to security assistance, the other main way China has responded is by trying to improve its image. Three Confucius Institutes operate in the country, teaching the Chinese language. But their appeal is somewhat limited.
More importantly, in recent years, China has improved its image by providing more vocational training and investments in higher-value sectors like technology and manufacturing rather than extraction. Over the past two years, Beijing has launched a flurry of these technical training centers called “Luban” workshops (named after a legendary Chinese craftsman) in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Opened in 2024, the new Luban Workshop in Bishkek focuses on hydropower and road construction, addressing national development bottlenecks. China also offers dozens of scholarships for Kyrgyz students to study in the country. Crucially, these efforts allow China to present itself as a promoter of human capital development: a partner offering in-demand skills, opportunity, and advancement. In this way, China attempts to create warmer feelings among locals in the region.
