Washington —

Any dissatisfaction among Central Asian leaders with China’s treatment of the Uighur minority was brushed aside during a recent visit to the region by the chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and China’s public security minister.

The warm welcome given to Chinese officials reflects the region’s growing economic ties with Beijing, as well as regional unease with Russia, the region’s long-standing guarantor against domestic insurgency and struggling on the battlefield in Ukraine.

An attack on a Moscow music venue on March 22 that killed at least 140 people and injured nearly 100 others triggered a backlash among Central Asians in Russia and heightened concerns that Moscow’s territorial ambitions could extend to other former Soviet republics .

Russian media reported that a surge in hate crimes and violence against Central Asian migrants since the attacks prompted Russian authorities to detain more than a dozen suspects, most with ties to the region.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, an offshoot of the Islamic State terrorist group active in South-Central Asia, mainly Afghanistan, and including members in Central Asia.

Central Asian economies have historically relied on remittances from Russian migrant workers. But Saleh Hudayar of the Washington-based East Turkestan Government-in-Exile, a group that advocates for China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, said that while China’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples are well documented, Central Asian leaders are deepening ties with China.

He told VOA that some Central Asian governments are willing to do business with Chinese officials, including those in Xinjiang, where the majority Muslim Uighurs have deep ties to the entire Central Asia region, because of the lack of support from the international community. Take action against local human rights violations. .

“The tepid response from major powers such as the United States and the European Union has not only disappointed the people of East Turkestan [Xinjiang] But Central Asian countries are also encouraged to deepen ties with China,” Hudayar said, adding that the economic benefits of doing business with China outweighed any moral considerations.

The United States and the European Union have officially characterized China’s human rights violations in Xinjiang as genocide, while the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that China’s actions in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, including arbitrary detention, forced labor, forced sterilization, and widespread targeting. Target surveillance of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

China denies these accusations, calling them lies concocted by anti-China forces led by the United States to curb China’s development.

Following discussions with the leaders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan last week, Chinese official Ergin Tunyaz, chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, led the first delegation to meet with the Kyrgyz president in Bishkek on April 1 Sadir Japarov.

Tuniyaz, a Uighur who himself has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for alleged human rights abuses, has led discussions on trade, mining, cultural exchanges and cooperation on humanitarian aid.

On the same day, Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong held security talks with Uzbek President Mirziyoyev.

Timur Umarov, an expert on China and Central Asia at the Carnegie Russia-Eurasia Center, said Central Asian leaders’ willingness to ignore human rights violations in order to strengthen economic and security ties with China stems from their own Governance style.

“It is important to remember that all Central Asian countries are authoritarian states, and U.S. concerns about the situation in China also apply to the regimes in Central Asian countries,” Umarov told VOA. “So in this regard, I don’t understand why Central Asian countries would regard such US accusations against China as a factor affecting their relations with China.

“Their foreign policy is very pragmatic,” he added. “They clearly understand that their own economic development and political stability are unimaginable without China.”

Kazakhstan President Tokayev said in a meeting with Tunyaz that he recently visited Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and that his delegation had “very good negotiations on the prospects of cooperation between Kazakhstan and China as a whole, and of course with Xinjiang.” “Province. “

Umarov said that as China’s assistance to Central Asian countries in diversifying their global economic ties continues to increase, Xinjiang plays a vital role in the economic cooperation between Central Asian countries and China, highlighting the importance of Xinjiang to these countries’ current and future importance.

“All logistics hubs and energy exports from Central Asia to China pass through Xinjiang,” Umarov said. “Most of all enterprises with branches and all investment projects in Central Asia come from Xinjiang.

“So, in fact, what we call the relationship between China and Central Asia is, in most cases, the relationship between Xinjiang and Central Asia,” he said. “So, I think it’s important to remember that as well.”

Official statistics show that China has become the main trading partner of all five Central Asian countries. According to Kazakhstani media reports, bilateral trade volume reached US$31.5 billion last year, of which Xinjiang contributed more than 64%, or US$20.3 billion.

“China is one of the region’s major trading partners and a major investor in Central Asia,” Genevieve Donnellon-May, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA. “At the same time, Central Asian leaders may be interested in reducing their dependence on Russia.”