Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.
China, Kazakhstan, Central Asia

What does China make of the Kazakhstan unrest?

China sources about 20 percent of its natural gas from or via Kazakhstan.

Jan 7, 2022
China Kazakhstan China is one of Kazakhstan’s largest foreign investors. (CNPC Kazakhstan)

China’s leader has congratulated his Kazakh counterpart for putting down unrest this week, pledging friendship as well as support and sympathy for President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s explanation that he is battling foreign terrorists.

China opposes a “color revolution” in Kazakhstan, Xi Jinping said on January 7, praising Tokayev in comments carried by Chinese state media: "At a key moment you took resolutely effective measures, quickly restoring calm.”

Xi surely has been watching events on his energy-rich neighbor’s territory closely.

China and Kazakhstan have a significant economic partnership. China sources roughly a fifth of its gas imports from or via Kazakhstan. The vast Central Asian country is also a lynchpin in Xi’s signature foreign policy undertaking, his globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative.

China has invested tens of billions of dollars in Kazakhstan since independence and is Kazakhstan’s largest export partner, buying oil, gas, copper, and other commodities, along with increasing supplies of agricultural products.

Those trade links could be threatened by the unrest.

Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, dismissed fears that gas flows could be impacted: “Although Kazakhstan is a transit country for the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline, the delivery of natural gas should be guaranteed as those pipelines were built in remote areas far from Kazakh cities where protests occurred,” the paper said on January 6.

Maybe so, but Western energy companies working in the country have had trouble operating this week, which could lead to production dips.

Chevron, which owns 50 percent of the giant Tengiz oil field, said it had been forced to cut production. “Production operations continue, however there has been a temporary adjustment to output due to logistics,” the Wall Street Journal quoted a Chevron spokeswoman as saying. “A number of contractor employees are gathered at the Tengiz field in support of protests taking place across Kazakhstan.”

The Journal also reported that Canada-based Cameco had struggled to communicate with its employees at a major uranium venture during the ongoing internet outages. Kazakhstan produces about 40 percent of the world's uranium supply. 

China’s envoy to Kazakhstan has said little, but he did appear on January 5 amid the escalating violence to post on Facebook that China-Europe freight traffic grew by 22 percent in 2021, to 15,000 trains. The majority of those cross Kazakhstan.

Nationwide protests, which began over rising energy prices this week but quickly encompassed a range of festering grievances about inequality and authoritarianism, prompted Tokayev to call for Russian military support through the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Kazakhstan has long taken pride in maintaining warm relations with both Russia and China. Beijing will be watching to see if the CSTO deployment costs it influence in Nur-Sultan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization – a regional economic and security alliance that includes China – also offered Kazakhstan the help of its Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), Interfax reported on January 7. The coordinating body holds annual anti-terrorism training exercises.

"We are confident that measures taken by the government, law enforcement and special agencies will lead to a fast neutralization of the illegal actions of gangs and terrorist cells," RATS said.

 

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Related

Aeroflot poised to return to Kazakhstan despite legal risks
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan complete border delimitation process
Why Central Asian journalists hide their names

Popular

Azerbaijani embassy in Iran comes under deadly attack
Heydar Isayev
Aeroflot poised to return to Kazakhstan despite legal risks
Fight or flight: Tbilisi and Kyiv caught in another round of tensions
Nini Gabritchidze

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2023