Power Structure Evolution In Central Asia After Cold War And Chinese Foreign Policy

Central Asia is located in central Eurasia, which is to the south of Russia, north of south Asia, east of Afghanistan, west of China, and is addressed as "World Island" by Mankinder. This place riches in natural resource, not only has plenty of oil and gas, also is abundant of water and mineral resource. This region is paid a lot of attention by strategists from different countries in history.Early in1991, facing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics fell apart, five central Asia republics of socialism wanted to stay in Soviet, but at last they also kept up with the trend of history and declared their independences early or late. Then power vacuum appeared in this region which attracted much attention from great powers, in that case fierce competitions for influence among them began. Turkey, Iran and some other Arab states attempt to bring central Asia’s development into line with their own strategies, but limited to their strengths none of them can compete with America, Russia and China, so policies of these three countries basically decide the power structure evolution in central Asia.The evolution of power structure in central Asia has three phases in order:from1991to1994, this region became power vacuum zone from under control of Soviet. From1994to2000, this region was characterized by competition between America and Russia, at the same time China participated the game. From2000to2011, America lost its advantage, and a balance of power appeared among Russia, America and China. Either from the view of geopolitics and the Chinese civil development demands or the attribute of China as a rising country, in central Asia Chinese interest certainly will expand, generally it concentrates on two fields:state security and energy resource, which include territorial integrity, military security, political and social stability in northwest region, gaining continuous energy supply from central Asia. We had safeguarded territorial integrity by demarcating border in this region, but the other three kinds of interests has been influenced by the evolution of power structure in central Asia. Given the power balance, our state interests will not be impacted swiftly and fiercely, but now the balance in central Asia is in quantitative change, we need relevant foreign policy and tactics to manage possible challenges.In order to safeguard these interests, China should think about its national strength, strategy and international environment, figure out what each country need in central Asia, and then realize interests by taking bilateral and multilateral problem-based measures, not only move toward under present situation but also anticipate how the power structure possibly evolve in the future. Bilateral channel means that China establishes trust with central Asia, support the political reform in that region, and integrate with this regional economy. Multilateral channel means that China should cooperate with regional countries in the field of energy exploitation, fighting three forces, economic integration and international issues in the frame of "Shanghai Cooperation Organization". China, America and Russia can share their views and concerns about central Asia in other important occasions, such as APEC, ASEAN summit and so on.We should notice that most measures China takes now are utilitarian, pay more attention to economic profit and emergency, less attention to non-governmental exchange. As the energy exploitation becomes fiercer, terrorist activities decline and politics transform, how to maintain the cooperation among China and central Asia countries will be an urgent problem in the future. In addition, compared to "Eurasian Economic Community" and "Collective Security Treaty Organization", how to highlight the specialty of "SCO" is also a problem needed to be addressed when we raise the level of cooperation with central Asia. But new problem also means new start.