Latest Clash between Chinese and Kyrgyz Workers in Kyrgyzstan Highlights Growing Anti-Chinese Attitudes Across the Region

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 21 – A clash between Kyrgyz and Chinese workers at a construction site in the northern portion of Kyrgyzstan on Nov. 15 that led to 15 arrests and at least one hospitalized highlights growing tension between indigenous Central Asians and Chinese arriving to work on Beijing-funded projects.

            This brawl is the latest of a series of such clashes which have taken place in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan over the last decade which both reflect and intensify anti-Chinese attitudes across the region (rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-chinese-workers-brawl/33594905.html and rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-chinese-workers-brawl-backlash/33595044.html).

            The governments of the workers involved have played down the incidents but such events suggest that there are likely to be troubles ahead not only in Central Asian countries but in the Russian Far East as well where Chinese workers are increasingly being bought in to perform work for which there aren’t enough qualified Russians.

            For background on this problem in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/11/anti-chinese-protests-in-post-soviet.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/09/anti-chinese-attitudes-in-central-asia.html.