China’s Westward Policy: Navigating Between Economic Aspirations and Geopolitical Power Dynamics in a Changing Landscape

In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2023, which has catalysed a shift in regional dynamics, China's multifaceted engagement with Central Asia through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become increasingly salient. The recent China-Central Asia Summit has further intensified global attention on this region. Drawing from an article I am currently working on, I aim to provide an overview of the economic ties, focusing on trade dynamics and investment patterns, explore China's motivations and strategies, and assess the evolving roles of major players like Russia. Are we witnessing a foundational shift in Central Asia's geopolitical landscape?

About the Speaker

Xiaoli Guo is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Centre on China at the World (CIW) at The Australian National University (ANU). She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from ANU in 2022.

She has been a Research Scholar at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at ANU in 2022. From 2017 to 2018, she was a Visiting Scholar at Department of International Relations and East Asian Studies at Middle East Technical University (METU), and in 2018, she served as a Visiting Scholar in The Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), and Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).

Her recent publications include: "China Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place on Ukraine," published in the East Asia Forum on 8 April 2022; "Turkey's International Humanitarian Assistance during the AKP Era: Key Actors, Concepts and Motivations", featured in Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Issue 1, 2020; "China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Turkey's Middle Corridor: 'Win-Win Cooperation'?" published by the Middle East Institute on June 26, 2018; and "Is Turkey Acting Fairly? --Turkey's Choice in T-LORAMIDs," published in the Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Issue 2, 2017. This last piece was translated into Arabic by Mahjoub Abbas et al. and published in Turkey: Issues and Insights تركيا: قضايا ورؤ) 2018).

The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.