Hu’s Seducing Karimov

Watch for more of this from China. Pay special attention to the mentions of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as China’s advances will no doubt come under such a cloak. Because, you know, it’s not about enlarging China’s sphere of influence as it is everyone coming together as one big happy family.

“As to what happened in Uzbekistan recently, it is basically a domestic affair, but we firmly support the crackdown on the three forces of separatism, terrorism and extremism by the Uzbekistan government,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference.
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“We support the efforts by the Uzbekistan government to stabilise the domestic situation and to engage in national development,” Kong said.

He added that fighting separatism, terrorism and extremism was a key goal of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

I can’t help but think that Russia is being squeezed out into the cold. It is second fiddle in the SCO and the CIS is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Right now it shares China’s role (and really is the leader of the two, considering news like this) as strategic competitor to the US in Central Asia. I imagine that can’t last forever, and that Russia would really prefer China to tone down its overtures. Not that I expect any of this to come out in the open anytime soon–just thinking out loud is all.