The New Silk Road: the Promise and the Challenge of Chinese Eurasian Integration in the Post-Soviet Central Asia

Abstract

The article discusses the New Silk Road Initiative in context of the Chinese Central Asian policies. An overview of the trajectory of development of the PRC political and economic presence will allow for an identification of the opportunities as well as the challenges to the future ambitions of the Middle Kingdom. The prospects of the New Silk Road are promising. The old problems – the lack of integration of Central Asian States and the economically challenging environment of the post-Soviet space – are still posing threats to every international political project in the region, though.