Abstract

After being announced at the 2023 China-Central Asia Summit in Xi’an and further promoted at the 2025 Summit in Astana, the push to build a China–Central Asia Community with a Shared Future has been concretised into development projects and other plans. This proposed open panel examines the pathways and prospects of the community-building initiative between China and Central Asia.

The trade volume between China and Central Asian countries hit a historic high of over $100 billion in 2025, making China the leading trade partner for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The significance of this achievement amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the growing global competition for critical raw materials is worthy of examination. From a geopolitical heartland to a geoeconomic hub, Central Asia has transformed into a new strategic focus for major powers vying for influence. With that said, the topics of interest for this panel include, but are not limited to:

• Implications of the community-building initiative for South-South cooperation

• Relations between the initiative and China’s Global Development, Security, Civilization, and Governance Initiatives

• China’s regional integration paradigm versus the Western ones

• Heritage diplomacy and infrastructure connectivity

• The materiality of mineral resources

• Roles of non-state (supranational and sub-state) actors in the initiative

In an era of increasing uncertainty driven by trade disputes, ongoing wars, and populist movements, which China describes as great changes unseen in a century, the topics above are worth studying not only because Central Asia has gained new strategic importance in the rivalry among major powers but also because it provides a window into China’s global ambitions from a regional perspective.