5 million Chinese will settle in Kazakhstan

8 million Chinese will be living in Central Asia in the nearest time, KazTAG reports citing head of Oriental Studies Department of Russian National Research University of the Higher School of Economics Professor Aleksey Maslov. According to him, China’s actions are currently aimed at entrain Central Asian countries into its economic interests, as China needs access to energy resources and markets for capital export. “This is North-West vector of Chinese policy. Chinese population in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region bordering on Kazakhstan has been rapidly growing in the last years. It is currently 30 million people, which is already not a small number. Pretty soon this population will reach 100 million people and, thus, it has to ‘spill’ across the borders,” Maslov said at the 8th international risk-management conference. “That’s why the forecast is that up to 8 million Chinese will live in Central Asian countries in the nearest few years. They will be coming from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,” he said. Answering KazTAG’s question on which share of the 8 million Chinese are expected to live in Kazakhstan, he said it would be “around two thirds”.