By Joyce Roque

April 25 - The Kyrgyz Republic remains to be a country in the process of unraveling itself. It is the second smallest country of the five central Asian states bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east. Despite being a land blessed by breathtaking natural beauty - some calling its Tien Shan range the Switzerland of Central Asia – it is one of the poorest in the world with an estimated 40 percent of its population living below the poverty line.

The Tulip Revolution
In 1991, the country declared independence from former Soviet Union led by Askar Akayev. The divorce from Kremlin would lead to devastating effects on its economy when an estimated 98 percent of its exports depended on the Soviet market. It hindered the country’s goal of transitioning to a free market economy. Akayev would later on be ousted in popular revolt in 2005 called the Tulip Revolution on accusations that government interfered with parliamentary elections aggravated by the country’s widespread poverty and corruption. (more…)

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
-Sir Winston Churchill

By Joyce Roque

April 14 - The Russian Federation is a nation foisted in two realities: the East and the West. As the largest country in the world, it hugs the planet starting from northern Asia spanning to about 40 percent of Europe. It is Eurasia; a country with the breath of 11 time zones and the depth of topography that includes vast forzen tundra, grasslands and steppe.

The country’s beginnings can be traced back to as early as the 3rd century A.D. when the East Slavs were ruled by the seafaring Vikings. The centuries have gone and steeped its history rich with culture, science and ideology. There comes to mind the names of such luminaries as Tolstoy, Nabokov, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky to name a few. More importantly, Russia is a self-sufficient with its abundant stores of raw materials needed to keep any industrial economy running. It produces an estimated 20 percent of the world’s total oil and natural gas production making it a global energy leader. (more…)

By Joyce Roque 

April 5 - Like father, like son. When history is written it will remember Kim Jong-Il as remaining true to his father’s memory. Fourteen years after the death of patriarch and founder, Kim Il-sung, North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, still maintains the distinction of being one of the most secretive and rigid states in the world.

Located in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, North Korea shares boundaries with China, Russia and South Korea. To its north, it shares a 1,416 kilometer border with China and a 19 kilometer one with Russia; to its south there is the 238 kilometer Korean Demilitarized Zone separating it from South Korea.

North Korea is still largely isolated and cut-off from foreign influences. Kim Jong-Il has continued to rule by the philosophy of Juche, or self-reliance to run the country’s communist regime with no tolerance for any form of dissention. In its annual World Press Freedom Index, Paris-based international non-governmental organization, Reporters Sans Frontiers, ranks North Korea at the bottom for not allowing privately-owned media and having no freedom of expression. (more…)

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 23 - The Lao call them Jin, and since the late 1800s when groups of marauding Chinese on horseback called Haw Jin first arrived, they have been coming into Laos in search of fortune.

Southeast Asia has long had Chinese immigrants, and from Thailand and Singapore to Indonesia and the Philippines, many of the region’s wealthiest and most powerful families trace their ancestry back to the mainland. Former Thai Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra and former Philippine President Corazon Aquino are just two example of this. While nationalism has hindered many of Chinese descent in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia from taking office, they long ago became the de facto merchants and bankers of the region.

Today, a new wave of Chinese immigrants is flooding south. Far from the rich and powerful families that preceded them, these Chinese come from the country’s interior, a location that has missed much of the economic transformation of China’s eastern coast. These cooks, laborers, merchants and tourists are leaving behind their economically depressed regions, often for destinations even poorer. (more…)

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 17 - Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has boomed in the past 15 years, growing more than 20 percent a year and reaching US$202.5 billion in 2007. The two sides are each other’s fourth-largest trading partners. When completed, the China-ASEAN FTA will be the world’s largest, encompassing around 1.7 billion consumers and with total trade estimated at US$1.2 trillion.

Much of that trade is dependent on a modern highway system throughout the region, but so far, the dream of a connected Southeast Asia is still just that. The infrastructure has yet to catch up with hard economic reality.

To see the challenge set out, one only needs to board a bus in Kunming, bound for the border. At the first gas station south of Kunming, trucks and busses wait to fill their tanks for the journey. The road, four divided lanes of limited-access black asphalt, cuts through mountains and across valleys, at one moment soaring almost above the clouds, the next in a deep ravine. The Kunming-Jinghong Highway is as much a testament to China’s rise as the Three Gorges Damn or the city of Shenzhen. (more…)

By Joyce Roque 

Gaily bedight,
A gallant night
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
-Edgar Allan Poe, El Dorado

The Land of the Khans
Jan. 8 - Through much of its history, Mongolia had been subject to the whims of its two giant neighbors. A country of vast, grassy steppes spanning 1,564,100 sq. km and wedged between Russia to its north and China to the south, Mongolia was home to Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, the great Mongol warrior who unified the country’s many tribes and conquered much of Asia in the 12th century. The Mongolian Empire reached as far west as Egypt and but following the death of Kublai Khan, it went into sharp decline and China and Russia began to reassert their influence over the land-locked country. China successfully invaded Mongolia the Ming Dynasty and following World War II, Mongolia became a vassal of “big brother” Soviet Russia as its 16th satellite republic.

Today, Mongolia’s neighbors are again playing a vital role in the present and future of the country. Russia is the country’s top importer while China dominates its export market, accounting for 71.8 percent of all exports. (more…)

By Joyce Roque 

Dec. 18 - “The main thing is to make history, not to write it.” Otto Von Bismarck

Much ado about oil
Just like the spice trade of yore where adventurers dared flinging themselves in the uncharted world for the sake of country and above all for the business of spice, it seems China is no different with the lure of spice replaced by the hunt for oil. China is the second largest importer of oil in the world with a mission to lay the groundwork for stabilizing its energy security in the future.

The world’s thirst for oil overtakes its supply despite fears of global warming. According to government specialists, oil and gas demand will remain unhindered and could climb to as much as 50 percent in the coming 25 years.

Oil industry experts also estimate that for China’s case oil demand may reach 400 million tons by 2020 with an average increase of 12 percent annually.

“There are no easy barrels left,” J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy told the International Herald Tribune. “The only barrels are going to be the tough barrels.” (more…)

This is the first in a series in which we look at China’s borders and the relationships that Beijing is building with the 15 countries that share its borders. As China has grown in the last 30 years, so have the often complicated relationships it has with its many varied neighbors. In this article, we take a look at Vietnam.

China paving its way into Southeast Asia
By Joyce Roque

Dec. 10 - If East Asian growth figures were taken into account and translated into basketball terms, China would clearly be its towering center with Vietnam hovering not far behind as its nimble point guard with 10.8 percent and 8.2 percent growth figures respectively slated for 2008, according to the World Bank.

Of late, China’s ambitions have led it to carefully plot economic alliances with its Asian neighbors to jockey its ascent to the path of becoming a superpower. It was only natural that it should make its most strategic moves to penetrate mainland Southeast Asia through expanding its relations with Vietnam. (more…)

By Andy Scott 

Part three: Requiem for a New Africa

War, poverty, corruption, the drumbeat continues to beat throughout all of Africa. Just a few years ago it all seemed so full of hope, South Africa was emerging from the shadow of apartheid, nations throughout the continent were throwing of the colonial yoke of their former European masters, strong and impassioned leadership was going to recast the great continent. But this is Africa, and things are never that easy.

Following the cold war democracies were flourishing, aid and promises of more was flowing in, Nelson Mandela was the face of new Africa. Nearly twenty years later that picture has faded. The faces that represent Africa these days are Mugabe’s and Bashir’s, and great hope has been replaced by apathy in the West towards what they say is endemic corruption, and resistance on the part of African nations to what they say is patronizing, debt-inducing aid packages that aim to keep them subservient in the global community.  The strings – free trade, open markets and privatization – have long been impalpable to many African leader. Now, China’s new found wealth and progressively bold foreign policy has given many in Africa a new place to turn.

This is the final part of a series in which we look at China’s emerging relationship with the Africa. The first part of the series examined China search for oil on the continent, while part two looked at what China was giving back to Africa. Part three examines the Sino-African relationship, its current state, and possible future. (more…)

By Andy Scott

Part two: Aid and trade

The train station in Mbeya, Tanzania stands out among the other buildings in the city. It is the nicest structure in the city, and it, along with the railway that runs through it, was completely financed and built by the People’s Republic of China.

Built between 1970 and 1975 at a cost of US$500 million, the TAZARA (Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority) Railway – running between the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia – was constructed as an alternative to rail lines via what was then Rhodesia (current Zimbabwe) and South Africa to landlocked Zambia.

“It’s quite a reputable railway, providing the only alternative mode of transportation between Mbeya and Dar. I’ve been to the station and it reeks of an outside corporation,” says Nicki Nelson, an independent economic development project manager in the region. “The only negative thing I heard about it, other than being constantly late, is that due to its slow travel, robbery is a regular occurrence as locals jump on and off and rob the rail riders.” (more…)