Infrastructure as a Socialising Tool: China’s Silk Road Economic Belt in Central Asia

Abstract

This article examines China’s Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) as a tool for regional security cooperation in Central Asia. The study employs the nascent Regional Security Complex framework to argue that China uses SREB projects to socialise Central Asian Republics into accepting Beijing’s security priorities and framing of the ‘three evils’ as an imminent threat to Xinjiang. Drawing on policy documents and empirical evidence from 2013 to mid-2025, the study demonstrates how infrastructure-based incentives have shifted Central Asian states’ positions on critical issues such as Xinjiang, despite their ethnic ties to the peoples of Xinjiang. Turkmenistan’s departure from its neutrality policy and Kazakhstan’s shift towards supporting Chinese policies provide convincing evidence of incentive-based socialisation processes. The findings suggest that adjacent great powers can successfully use incentives rather than coercion to attract regional states for cooperation. However, this does not eliminate the agency of local states; instead, it reshapes policy direction.