Xi Hosts Historic China-Central Asia Summit

Welcome back to World Brief, where China and Central Asia hold their first-ever summit, Australia cancels this month’s Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting, and Ghana secures an International Monetary Fund loan.

With G-7 leaders meeting in Japan, China kick-started its first-ever Central Asia summit on Thursday. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are all in attendance for the two-day event. Leaders met one-on-one with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday before group discussions on Friday. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, this is the first major diplomatic event China has hosted this year.

Many issues are on the summit’s agenda, but its primary purpose is to secure greater political and economic partnerships between China and its Central Asian neighbors. “We have a common goal: to intensify bilateral relations,” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Xi on arriving in Xian, where the summit is being held. The central-northwest Chinese city, formerly called Changan, is a highly symbolic location for the meeting, as it once served as the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that connected China with Central Asia and the Mediterranean.

China and Central Asia have long been vital partners on the global stage. In 2013, Beijing launched its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in Kazakhstan and has since spent billions of dollars on transportation and infrastructure in the region. China is Central Asia’s largest trading partner. Last year, trade reached a record high of $70 billion, including $31 billion with Kazakhstan alone. This year is proving to be no different; already, China and Central Asian nations have conducted more than $24.8 billion in trade. Just as Central Asia relies on Chinese trade and investment, Beijing depends on Central Asia for key resources. Many Chinese cities rely on natural gas pipelines from Turkmenistan and oil from Kazakhstan.

Alongside fostering economic relations, Beijing likely hopes that deeper ties with the region will help curtail U.S. dominance; curb ethnic unrest in far-western Xinjiang, which neighbors Central Asia; and fill the void left by Russia amid its war in Ukraine. However, not all Central Asian nations are on board. Many Central Asian Muslims continue to criticize China’s abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. And Central Asian leaders fear that as former Soviet satellite states, their countries may be next to get caught in the Kremlin’s crosshairs and are thus wary of Xi’s close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Russia’s Convict-Soldiers Have Their Own Brutal Rules by Kristaps Andrejsons
• Why Xi Is Ghosting Biden by Craig Singleton
• Why Turkey Experts Got the Election All Wrong by Sinan Ciddi and Steven A. Cook

Week of diplomacy. Alongside the China-Central Asia summit, G-7 leaders are convening in Japan this week to discuss China’s growing global ambitions. They will also debate best strategies to negotiate a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine. Now, however, the pressure is on to make the first few hours of the conference count.

In a last-minute decision, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he would be cutting his Asia trip short due to debt ceiling negotiations back in Washington. This forced Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to cancel this month’s Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting in Sydney on Wednesday, saying bloc discussions would be held in Japan during the G-7 summit instead.

But a compact timeline for work is not the only obstacle at the G-7 meeting. Diplomatic and ideological differences among member nations are sparking controversy. Frustration is growing in Washington over European resistance to broadening economic sanctions and export controls on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as well as to taking a tougher stance against China, a major European trade partner. Some G-7 leaders have even chastised French President Emmanuel Macron for visiting Beijing last month to discuss peace proposals in Ukraine. The French leader’s trip highlighted what other European countries are too scared to say, French parliamentarian Benjamin Haddad argued in Foreign Policy: that “the European Union should find its own voice in world affairs and not let its worldview and interests be shaped by others”—namely, the United States.

Ghana’s financial future. Ghana secured a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday after creditors, including China, agreed to restructure the West African country’s debt. Ghana currently owes more than $63 billion in foreign and domestic debt, accumulated over the past 15 years. Beginning immediately, the IMF will grant Accra $600 million.

Ghana is suffering its worst financial crisis in decades. Food prices have skyrocketed an average of 41 percent over the last year, and debt accounts for almost 90 percent of the total annual value of the country’s economy. Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has applied for IMF loans 17 times—including this latest one. But whether a $3 billion promise is enough to move Ghana toward economic stability is yet to be seen.

Flag March protests. Tens of thousands of right-wing Israeli nationalists took to the streets of the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday to celebrate Jerusalem Day, which commemorates Israel’s capture of the city during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The annual event, known as the “Flag March,” has become an opportunity for far-right Jewish extremists to espouse often racist anti-Palestinian rhetoric, and this year’s march was no exception. The Israeli government deployed around 2,500 police officers to maintain peace, yet reports of Jewish Israelis provoking Palestinian youth still emerged.

In response, Palestinians organized their own flag marches in the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday. The dueling protests come amid a recent outbreak of violence this month between Palestinian Islamic Jihad extremists and Israeli forces.

Sometimes, the punchline lands a little too well. This week, the Chinese government issued comedy troupe Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media a $2.1 million fine for a joke in which a comic compared the aggressive behavior of his dogs while chasing a squirrel to that of China’s military. “Other dogs you see would make you think they are adorable. These two dogs only reminded me of … ‘Fight to win, forge exemplary conduct,’” said comedian Li Haoshi, invoking a slogan Xi introduced for the People’s Liberation Army in 2013. Chinese authorities weren’t amused, saying the quip “humiliated the people’s army.”