Blank, Stephen. "New signs of Chinese military interest in Central Asia". Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 16 Jan. 2017.

Blank, Stephen. "New signs of Chinese military interest in Central Asia". Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 16 Jan. 2017.

• China is becoming increasingly involved in Central Asian security, esp. in the southern borders. General Fang Fenghui of the PLA will be visiting Kabul in March to set up a regional alliance against terrorism between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. He has already received the support of President Ashraf Ghani and Emomali Raxmon.
• Expansion of Chinese security interests into Central Asia is driven by both the increasingly internationalist Xi administration in Beijing, and an increased economic interest in securing investments in Central Asia due to the mass investment undertaken in the area under the One Belt One Road initiative.
• The global rise of Islamic jihad has made the government increasingly concerned about the potential for violence from Uyghurs in Xinjiang, largely because of cross-boundary connections between Uyghur jihadi movements and jihadists operating in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
• The Chinese government has recently taken extreme measures to combat this threat, ordering all residents of Xinjiang to give up their passports to the government this year. This is intended to prevent young men, among others, from going abroad to join terrorist groups.
• The expansion of the 'Uyghur problem' into the international arena reflects the inability of the Chinese government to successful resolve domestic issues in Xinjiang. Rather than engage in difficult domestic reforms, the Chinese government seeks to use additional military force to control symptoms of unrest.
• China also has other motives in its investments in Central and South Asian security, mainly its inability to trust its major regional allies. The US government is increasingly unwilling to invest more in Afghan security, despite Taliban gains, while both Russia, Iran, and Pakistan have been accused of supporting the Taliban in some capacity. The Chinese government is increasingly tempted to be its own security provider.