New and Old Regionalism: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Sino-Central Asian Relations

Abstract

China's bilateral relations with the Central Asian countries have steadily developed since the establishment of formal relations in January 1991. After the foundation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in June 2001, China's relations with the Central Asian countries have progressively deepened in new multilateral settings. On the one hand, the bilateral cooperation between China and the central Asian countries has promoted the formation of a multi-area and multi-level regional cooperation mechanism; and on the other hand, the establishment of an effective mechanism promoting economic and security cooperation in the region, will significantly benefit the consolidation and expansion of these bilateral relationships.

Notes

Sun Zhuangzhi is presently Director, Central Asian Department, Institute for East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

This article was originally translated from the Chinese by Xu Cai, doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

For discussion of the wider framework of Chinese security initiatives in the Asia Pacific region, see Wang Yushen, ‘APEC, ASEM, SCO and [the] New Security Outlook’, Foreign Affairs Journal, Beijing, No. 64 (June 2002), pp. 71–6.

For analysis of China's specific policy perspective on terrorism, see Anti-Terror Research Center, China Institute for International Strategic Studies, ‘A Few Observations on Terrorism and Anti-Terror Struggle’, International Strategic Studies, No. 4 (2002), pp. 18–23. Also for analysis of the Chinese view on the ‘three forces’ see Pan Guang, ‘Xin singshixiade Shanghai hezuo zuzhi: tiaozhan, jiyu he fazhan qianjing’ (The Shanghai Cooperation Organization under the New Situation: Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects), Guoji wenti yanjiu (International Studies), No. 5 (2002), pp. 38–42.

Chinese policy experts like to comment on how the SCO can sponsor a ‘new regionalism’ that will facilitate a positive relation between the nation-state structure and the global structure of politics. See, for example, Pang Zhongying, ‘The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Should Be Built on the Basis of a New Regionalism’, Renmin ribao (People's Daily), June 24, 2002.

There is a variety of American expert opinion on the uses of the SCO; for example, in Charles Morrison and Christopher McNally (ed.), Asia Pacific Security Outlook, 2002 (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2002), p. 60, and in Charles Morrison (ed.), Asia Pacific Security Outlook, 2003. (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2003), p. 50. China's involvement in the SCO and the latter's support for the war on terror are viewed as constructive contributions to regional and global security.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sun Zhuangzhi

Sun Zhuangzhi is presently Director, Central Asian Department, Institute for East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.