Tibet, Xinjiang part of China's planned biz hubs for Silk Road

China plans to make its troubled border provinces Xinjiang and Tibet major business hubs for seamless trading with Europe and South Asia as it moves ahead with the mega Silk Road project to boost its global influence.
The 13th Five-Year Plan approved this week at the National People's Congress outlines China's ambition to make Xinjiang an important gateway to the West, Tibet to South Asia, Yunnan Province to Southeast Asia, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as an international passage to the ASEAN -- which include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.
Xinjiang, bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and several Central Asian states, has been on the boil for years over ethnic tension between Uyghur Muslims and majority Han settlers from mainland China.

The province in the last few years has also witnessed violent attacks allegedly carried out by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), prompting the Chinese government to deploy large number of troops to quell the turmoil.
Tibet too has witnessed tension over incidents of self- immolation, protests calling for the return of the Dalai Lama from India. Overseas Tibetan groups say over 130 incidents of self-immolations have taken place in the region.
While Xinjiang is expected to become the hub for both the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through the PoK and the Silk Road projects to connect with Europe, Tibet is likely to play a major role in connecting China to South Asia, including India via Nepal.

India has adopted a mixed approach to the Chinese initiatives. Though it has backed the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) corridor, India has so far stayed clear of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) owing to concerns over its strategic implications in the Indian Ocean.

India has also opposed the CPEC as it is being built through the disputed parts of the PoK.
Tian Yun, director of China Society of Macroeconomics - a research centre, told state-run Global Times that many places along the border are transportation junctions and could become platforms to promote "Made in China" to neighbouring nations.

The 13th Plan states that China will continue to promote Belt and Road Initiative by building the China-Mongolia- Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia, China-Indochina Peninsula, China-Pakistan and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridors, as well as the new Eurasian Land Bridge.
The plan listed Xinjiang as a key region for the Belt and Road initiative, the official name for the Silk Road.
Xi said more than 100 countries and global organisations
have participated in China's Belt and Road Initiative, and more than 20 countries have worked with China in production capacity cooperation in such areas as railway construction and nuclear power.
He urged the implementation of the projects to ensure that the countries involved have "a sense of gain."

Xi stressed that more specific Belt and Road policies should be worked out and major support should be focused on strategic projects including facilities cooperation, energy resource use and core technology research and development.
Domestic enterprises are encouraged to invest in countries along the Belt and Road and countries along the routes are welcome to do business in China, Xi said.
The export of China's production and construction capacity could support the Belt and Road countries to push forward industrialisation and will help to stabilise the world economy, state-run China Daily quoted him as saying.
The Silk Road Economic Belt is a land-based route from China through Central Asia and Russia to Europe.

The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is a strategic route through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa.
In a bid to promote OBOR, Xi has made state visits to a number of countries, including the Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan this year.
More than 30 countries and international organisations have signed agreements and memorandums of understanding with China on jointly implementing the Belt and Road strategy, the report said.
As part of the Belt and Road projects, freight trains have made more than 2,000 trips from China to Europe and back on 39 rail lines, it said.