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Uzbekistan has deepened its economic alignment with China on two fronts simultaneously, agreeing to replicate Beijing’s industrial development model and hosting high-level energy talks that produced commitments on dozens of new power projects, according to a China-Central Asia monitor covering the first week of December.
The Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade and China’s National Development and Reform Commission launched a joint programme that will allow Uzbekistan to adopt Chinese blueprints for economic reforms and industrial development. The arrangement, if implemented as intended, would extend Beijing’s influence over the direction Uzbekistan takes in emerging sectors including information technology and artificial intelligence, analysts cited in the monitor noted.
Energy deals dominate Mirziyoyev’s talks with Chinese executives
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev separately held talks in Tashkent with the heads of leading Chinese companies on energy cooperation. State media reported that more than 30 projects with a combined capacity of nearly 10 gigawatts, valued at over $9 billion, are already being implemented in Uzbekistan with Chinese partners. On the same day as the meeting, 14 additional projects worth nearly $2 billion were launched, bringing the total pipeline discussed to over $11 billion across 44 projects.
No breakdown of the individual projects by technology type or location was provided in official statements.
Mirziyoyev and his daughter and senior aide Saida Mirziyoyeva also met with Long Yuxiang, chairman of the China International Cultural Communication Center, an organisation that promotes Chinese influence through mass media projects and cultural and educational exchanges. No specific agreements were announced following those meetings.
China’s soft-power reach across the region
The energy and economic agreements sit within a broader pattern of Chinese engagement across Central Asia documented in the same monitoring period. Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan announced competitions for Beijing-funded scholarships for the 2026-27 academic year at Chinese universities, while Chinese embassies across the region promoted a graduate study programme for mid-career government officials and business executives under the Youth of Excellence Scheme of China.
In Kazakhstan, Chinese Ambassador Han Chunlin placed an article on China’s poverty-reduction record in at least 16 Kazakh media outlets, including Kursiv, DKN and InBusiness.kz, and offered Kazakh authorities Beijing’s assistance in formulating their own poverty-reduction strategies. The Kazakh government also approved an investment agreement with Xinjiang Lihua to build a cotton agro-complex in the Turkestan Region, with an initial outlay of 58 billion tenge (approximately $111 million) and an ultimate target of 200 billion tenge (around $383 million), projected to create more than 1,400 permanent and 300 temporary jobs.
Kazakhstan’s national oil company KazMunaiGas acquired a 50-percent stake in a newly registered Astana-based entity, Akkaiyn Operating, on the same day the company was created, according to a report by Ulysmedia citing the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. The other half belongs to an offshore subsidiary of Chinese corporation Sinopec. The entity’s declared purpose is geological exploration.
Railway progress and agricultural market access
On the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev inspected the Tosh-Kutchu section and reported that work has begun on 18 of 29 tunnels, 17 of 50 bridges and 28 of 602 culverts. The railway, once complete, will link China through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and represents one of the region’s most consequential infrastructure undertakings.
Kyrgyzstan is also lobbying Beijing for five new sanitary, veterinary and inspection protocols that would open the Chinese market to heat-treated beef, horse meat and by-products, horse hides and live equines, according to Kyrgyz media reports.
In Turkmenistan, three new wells drilled using Chinese equipment came online at the Uzynada gas field, feeding the pipeline to China, which remains the primary export destination for Turkmen gas. President Serdar Berdymukhamedov personally inspected a separate delivery of Chinese heavy equipment — including haulers, refuellers and excavators — supplied to the country’s water-management agency on December 1.
The Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation, held December 2-3 in Urumqi, produced limited concrete outcomes. Its main announced result was the establishment of a Central Asia Regional Financial Cooperation Research Center, described as aimed at supporting regional policy coordination and integration.