Kyrgyzstan crisis a threat to China's influence

Bustling trade between China and Kyrgyzstan has slowed to a trickle since deadly violence broke out in Kyrgyzstan, and experts say the crisis could diminish Beijing's economic clout in the country while bolstering rival Russia's already dominant influence. Most days, as many as 200 trucks loaded with televisions, apples, T-shirts and other Chinese goods enter Kyrgyzstan at the Yi'erkeshitan Pass. On Thursday, however, no trucks and just four people crossed at the pass high in the Tianshan mountains in far western China's Xinjiang region, according to an official with the border crossing administration. "The entry is still open, but what happened in Kyrgyzstan really had an impact on the flow of people and trade across the border," said the man, who like many Chinese bureaucrats would give only his surname, Wang. Hundreds and maybe thousands have died in rampages led mainly by ethnic Kyrgyz against Uzbeks in the country's south. Before the violence, China had sought to exert primarily economic influence on its neighbors to the west, in what has been called a 21st century iteration of the "Great Game" — Russia and Britain's fight for power in Central Asia more than 100 years ago. Rather than cavalry troopers and spies, however, China has deployed intrepid traders who have established a thriving commerce in everything from fruit to car parts, electronics to textiles. While Russia and the U.S. traded barbs about the presence of the others' troops in the country, China's professed noninterference paid great dividends: Bilateral trade jumped to $9.3 billion in 2008, according to Beijing's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, up from just a few hundred million dollars at the start of the decade. But now, Beijing finds itself shut out of the primarily political and military solutions being offered by the Russia and the U.S.