Reporting on China's Fiscal Power in Central Asia

https://eurasianet.org/covid-and-the-new-debt-dynamics-of-kyrgyzstan-and-tajikistan

https://www.centralasianews.net/news/267339395/uzbekistan-attracts-usd-66-billion-fdi-in-2020

Articles such as these represent a signal to Western investment – particularly the EU, that there is a need to infuse cash (and thus influence) into the region. A failure to do so will lead to Beijing's increased power and presence in the Central Asian and Eurasian theatres.

A Libertarian type might intrude and say it doesn't have to be a zero sum game and yet such protestations represent little more than ivory tower rhetoric – the polemics of economists divorced from political realities – by definition a fantasy. The political realities are that there are limitations in market capacities, just as there are limitations not only in resources but the means of getting said resources to regional and global markets. China certainly has the advantage as it sits to the immediate east of the region and is in the midst of constructing just such an infrastructure – an economic mechanism that may make Beijing the winner of the 21^st century 'Great Game' – with its prize being Central Asia and control of Eurasia itself.

Various sites cover such topics and Eurasianet is NED (National Endowment for Democracy) connected and thus it has deep ties to US intelligence and the State Department. The NED arose in the 1980's and yet really came into its own after 1989. As the Cold War ended, the political projects that were undertaken on a clandestine basis by the CIA during the Cold War were now shifted to 'above board' organisations like the NED. In the new climate they could engage in the same kind of politically manipulative tasks and yet operate almost totally in the open – an open conspiracy if you will. They're busy at work today in places like Hong Kong, Belarus, South America, and elsewhere. They funnel money into political causes and propaganda and as such seek to manipulate politics – the very things Western politicians and media scream about with regard to Russia and China. The US operations are much larger and deeply entrenched within not only the US State Department and Pentagon, but Wall Street. And increasingly my own probings lead me to believe outlets like the NED are also (in not a few cases) tied to religious organisations and missionary groups – a reality I knew existed to some extent – but I'm coming to realise is much more pervasive than I had previously understood.

Fear of Chinese-style surveillance and military aid will motivate Christians in such contexts (such as Central Asia) to turn to the West – little realising that they're being used, destroying the Church's testimony in the process, and if the larger cultural and political project fails – the backlash and cost will prove terrible.

For their part, the regimes are trying to triangulate, play the great powers off against one another and stem the tide of Islamic extremism. They fear outside influence. They fear proxy political and paramilitary forces and they fear their nations becoming a battleground or staging ground – the very thing the US seeks to do. They push a line of stability and social conformity. Sadly that means forms of Christianity without historic ties (anything not part of the Eastern Orthodox spectrum) are going to be frowned upon. Evangelicals are feared for their ties to their politically active Western counterparts, and sectarians (like Jehovah's Witnesses) are feared in other instances because they are viewed as subversive – refusing to participate in the military and the political process.

These sad and troubling realities cause us to read such articles with caution but by no means does it render them useless.

Russia and China have their own similar organisations and news outlets. I also read them with the same grain of salt and spirit of caution. I don't trust any of them but that doesn't mean everything that is said is utterly and absolutely false either. And if possible I triangulate and read something independent or something from a nation like Turkey or India. This isn't always possible but the more you read, the more things stand out – and the less likely you're going to be taken in.