The Golden Decade's Slogan in Sino-Uzbek Relations and Its True Guardian
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 621 - 14/10/2026
By: Ustadh Abdulaziz al-Uzbeki

China is prepared to open a new golden chapter in bilateral relations through cooperation with Uzbekistan. This was stated by President Xi Jinping during his meeting with Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The negotiations between the two sides were portrayed in the language of official diplomacy as yet another successful page.

Beneath dazzling slogans such as “The New Golden Decade,” “China-Uzbekistan Community with a Shared Future,” and “Mutually Beneficial Strategic Partnership,” significant global and regional operations are concealed. When viewed through the lens of the international situation, the clash of global capitalist forces, and the geostrategic interests of the Islamic Ummah, the true essence of the matter is revealed.

On one hand stands China—a communist-capitalist power seeking to secure its supply chains and export routes—and on the other stands a subordinate regime lacking an independent principled reference, which has surrendered its natural wealth, transit capabilities, and Muslim population to be carved up by the great powers.

The International Scenario:

- Weakening of American Hegemony: America’s industrial and technological monopoly has collapsed, and its military, economic, and financial power are being seriously eroded by its reckless policies in Iran, Gaza, and other Islamic countries, in addition to its internal debt and tariff policies. It is no longer able to control the entire world single-handedly.

- Europe’s Structural Crisis: As a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the loss of cheap energy, Europe has fallen into a spiral of industrial decline and has become a victim of the competition between America and China.

- China’s Expansionist Push: China has not been content with becoming a global industrial center; it has achieved superiority over the West in electronic chips, renewable energy, and high technology. At the same time, it is increasing the share of the yuan in international trade to reduce its dependence on the dollar.

Under these circumstances, ensuring overland routes for transporting goods is a vital necessity for China. When maritime straits such as Hormuz and Malacca, as well as the waters of the Pacific Ocean, are under threat from U.S. naval forces or regional wars, the overland One Belt, One Road network through Central Asia becomes the only alternative for Chinese goods to reach the markets of Europe and the Middle East.

Therefore, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway line that Xi Jinping emphasized in Bishkek is not merely infrastructure for Beijing, but a strategic geo-economic and military artery that circumvents Western sanctions and naval blockades.

China’s promotion of slogans such as “artificial intelligence, combating desertification, poverty reduction, and opening cultural centers” in its relations with Uzbekistan is, in fact, a trap of economic dependency cloaked in the guise of soft power:

1. Monopolizing Raw Materials and Markets: In exchange for technology and loans, China is seizing Uzbekistan’s mineral wealth (uranium, copper, gas, and Rare Earth Elements (REEs)), as well as its energy grids and transport corridors. It is using rare earth minerals and production chains as a weapon, and is now fully integrating Uzbekistan’s resources into this chain.

2. Cultural and Educational Expansion: Xi Jinping’s call to establish cultural centers, educational exchanges, and people-to-people rapprochement is a plan to improve the perception of Muslim peoples in Central Asia toward China and to bolster political and economic expansion from an intellectual and cultural standpoint.

3. The Stigma of the Three Evil Forces: Conspiring Against the Islamic Awakening.

The most dangerous point in the statement is the agreement of the two parties to unite in combating the three evil forces (terrorism, extremism, and separatism).

The true essence of these terms is to legitimize the tragedy of East Turkestan. China seeks to erase the Islamic identity of millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims by throwing them into camps under the pretext of “extremism and separatism.” Uzbekistan’s unquestioning acceptance of this concept and its full support for Xi Jinping’s four global initiatives and the One China principle means participating in the oppression of East Turkestan’s Muslims and officially justifying China’s anti-Muslim policies.

The United States and the West are waging a systematic war against Islam and its rulings. Similarly, China, Russia, and the regional regimes within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization fear the emerging awakening among Muslim peoples and the revival of Islamic identity and the idea of Islamic governance—the Khilafah (Caliphate). Under the label of the three evil forces, this Islamic awakening and any natural movement against authoritarian regimes are targeted.

The Lack of an Independent Policy in the Region’s Regimes:

The subordinate rulers in the region’s countries are disconnected from their peoples and are forced to rely on external powers like America, Russia, and China to maintain their thrones.

The Uzbek regime’s praise of Xi Jinping’s “foresight” and its wishes for the bright future of Chinese modernization show that, under the guise of a multi-dimensional foreign policy, Tashkent is falling more and more into Beijing’s economic and security grip, amidst Russia’s entanglement in the Ukrainian quagmire and America’s strategic confusion.

For a country to be great, it is not enough to have just an army or raw materials; it must possess a civilizational project, an independent industrial base, and the ability to control its resources. Since the regimes of the region lack all of this, they are content to be subordinate parties that supply Chinese industry with raw materials and consume Chinese goods.

Where is the Path to Salvation?

The new golden era that China wants to open with Uzbekistan is in reality:

- For China: Securing supply chains, achieving absolute control over Central Asia’s resources in the competition with America, and establishing a security barrier to prevent the unity of Muslims.

- For the Uzbek Regime: Obtaining political and financial guarantees from an external patron in exchange for the people’s wealth, and securing the regime’s stability.

- For the Muslim People: Economic dependency, plundering of natural resources, and further strangulation of the Islamic-based awakening under the pretext of “counterterrorism.”

At this pivotal historical moment, when American and Western capitalism are facing a deep structural crisis, when industry and defense in Europe are floundering, and when China is unwilling to bear the burdens of the world, the salvation of the peoples of Central Asia and the entire Ummah lies not in turning towards China or the West, but in Muslims emerging from the quagmire of nationalism and patriotism, returning to their Islamic creed, rejecting the stigmas of the three evil forces, and uniting under the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate). For this great, illuminating state alone is capable of halting China’s colonialist ambitions, liberating the oppressed in East Turkestan, and directing the region’s wealth towards the progress and prosperity of its true owners: the Islamic Ummah.