Underpinning China’s Approach in Institutionalizing Interdependence and Regional Order in Central Asia

Abstract

Under the administration of XI Jinping, China has significantly reshaped its
extended patterns of interaction in Central Asia across security, institutional
governance and development. This increased engagement has already observed
in existing scholarly literature under economic perspective, whereas shaping
regional order through institutional mechanism remains rather unresearched. By
using the lens of complex interdependence theory, the study examines Beijing’s
approach towards the Central Asia, particularly, focusing on how issue linkage,
policy coordination and institutional interaction influence governance
mechanism and outcomes in the region. It further analyzes how Chinese
engagement intersects with governance outcomes related to stability, peace and
strong institution in relations to the targets of SDG-16. This research utilizes
qualitative document analysis and process tracing of official policy papers and
secondary literature, dealing Central Asia as a regional case with Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) and institutions under Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI) as embedded units of analysis. The results show that Chinese institutional
mechanism supports patterns of asymmetric interdependence which is
contributory to an evolving regional order in the region pigeonholed by
institution-based governance, cooperation and infrastructural development or
connectivity. An extensive debate is provided under this research on institutional
mechanism and governance, regional order and Chinese foreign course of action
by emphasizing on the role of institution in linking development and security.