Empire of the Ring

The number of illegal immigrants from the border area was 2,000 in 400 households, 327 households among them were Han Chinese. Uyghurs among them had been already moved to various parts of Kazakhstan as immigrants, and all Han Chinese were decided to be expelled.

There were some Han Chinese seeking political asylum, but the sentiment of the Kazakh people for them was not amicable, so there was no other option.

The people of Central Asia were not fond of the Han people. It was because historically; they had been greatly humiliated by the Han Chinese.

Some of them hid for political reasons, so Youngho and Cabinet members were having a discussion over the deportation issue.

"Your Highness, Kazakhstan has been accepting any immigrants if they wanted regardless of their ethnicity. If we banish all the Chinese, the perception of Kazakhstan could change negatively."

"That's why China sees us as too soft. We need to change from our past. If anyone can cross the border without any consequence, there's no point of having a border. Our negligence is the reason that they came in in the first place."

"We should allow political asylum at least."

"I don't know about other countries, but we should not allow Chinese people to defect because of political reasons for a while. If we do, we'll give China an excuse for a complaint."

"His Highness is right. The Chinese government, however, has refused to raise the issue of illegal residents in the border area. If we selectively receive immigrants from China, we don't know how China will react."

"The One Belt One Road project will have a huge turning point depending on how China reacts when we hand over illegal immigrants. China has put a huge amount of money into Khorgas in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Kazakhstan is absolutely necessary for China to cross Eurasia. Let's wait and see if it can bend its pride."

Youngho did not feel comfortable to expel all Chinese illegal immigrants unconditionally. However, he could not ignore the public sentiment toward China. Besides, there should be a large group of Uyghur people crossing the border soon, so he needed the Chinese border guards' attention focused at one place. He wanted illegal Chinese immigrants to make trouble at the border checkpoint when they were being expelled.

Those illegal immigrants from China escaped China to live in the valleys of the Tian Shan Mountains for many reasons. But if they were asked to return to China, they could cause a disturbance. Even if they did not, China's border guards should also be on alert, as 1,400 people were being deported.

Since there was not much room to accommodate Uyghurs who were crossing the border soon, the camps that had been occupied by the Chinese illegal immigrants had to be cleared out, anyway.

The border area where the Uyghurs would be crossing was relatively poorly guarded, so there was nothing to worry about.

***

In the western border town of Xinjiang Uyghur, there was a free economic zone called Khorgas. It was built like a mirage in a desert in the wilderness between the borders of China and Kazakhstan. It was a free economic zone that China made by investing in more than three billion dollars. It was now being developed by both China and Kazakhstan. There were many duty-free shops, and many buildings were still being built. There was a borderline in the middle of the free economic zone, but there was no restriction on cars and people visiting by both countries. Just like an oasis of the Silk Road, people would come together to buy, sell, and get back on their way.

Khorgas was an oasis on the border. Many products that came from the Chinese continent spread throughout Central Asia there, and Korean products also occupied a place there.

"Your Highness, the place you're seeing now is the Chinese entry office and the border guard office."

"Our border guards do not reside here?"

"We can't go over the border checkpoint. This is the territory of China. Only customs officers are allowed to reside here."

"This is called the free economic zone, but Kazakhstan doesn't have any power over here."

"That's not entirely true. The Chinese side accommodates our need because they have to move all loads to our cars in order to get connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. If they don't provide our train, there will be a great logistical disturbance."

"That must be because of China's railroad track."

Because of the difference between China's standard track and Kazakhstan and Russia's broad-gauge railroad, people would have to transfer to a different train at the border between China and Kazakhstan. Without Kazakhstan's help, it was impossible to move logistics to Eurasia.

The two border areas of Dostyk and Khorgas, where the two trains met, were the main places that connected the train that crossed the Chinese continent and the train that crossed Kazakhstan.

An Army lieutenant colonel who was in charge of border security was explaining the free economic zone to Youngho.

"I guess our help is absolute."

"Yes. Not long ago, China provided us with train cars."

Because Kazakhstan did not supply enough number of trains, China encouraged more flow of goods by providing more trains to Kazakhstan's side.

"Can anyone freely move around in this free economic zone?"

"This region is a kind of extraterritoriality. Unless you committed a crime here, no one is going to interfere with your activities."

"If we bring illegal immigrants here, China will have a hard time."

"If we let them go here, the whole place will be in chaos for a while."

It was a perfect place to distract the attention of China since this was a crowded place with people and the huge amount of logistics cargo that China transferred.

China and Kazakhstan's train paths were connected by Dostyk-Alashankou and Altynkol-Khorgas.

The Trans China Railway (TCR) was a railway of about 4,000 kilometers that ran across from eastern to western China. It was about 25 years old since it was connected in 1992.

"I heard that there are a lot of Kazakh people living in Xinjiang Uyghur. Were they not pressured by China?"

"There are about 1.2 million Kazakh people living there, and fortunately, they're living freely because of China's relationship to Kazakhstan. And these days, we're settling Kazakhs living in Xinjiang Uyghur in this region. It's because we need their help to resolve the language barrier."

***

Youngho, who secretly visited the free economic zone in Khorgas, was brainstorming with Eriksson. It was because China did not seem like it would give up on the Kazakh section of the One Belt One Road project easily because of the huge amount of money it invested in the free economic zone. Before China began the One Belt One Road project, it was already operating a trans-Eurasian train through Kazakhstan. If Kazakhstan blocked Kazakhstan's railway all of a sudden, it would sabotage Kazakhstan's relationship with the European Union, which needed Chinese goods.

As the amount of transported goods increased, China had made a free economic zone, and it was now planning to expand the double-track railway, but if the new government of Kazakhstan interfered with it, conflict was inevitable.

"Your Highness, China yielded to us at the free export zone near Almaty because China was at fault there, but we'd have to maintain the existing route to the Trans-Siberian Railway in order to avoid a conflict."

China was pinning high hopes on the Eurasian crossing through China-Kazakhstan traverse.

It was estimated that about 160,000 TEUs of containers would be transported through 2,000 times of trips in this section. As this was the situation, China would not give up this route.

"I guess we should keep the route to maintain good relations with the European Union."

"The route that connects to the Trans-Siberian Railway via Kazakhstan has been made official, so cooperating is also beneficial to the national interest."

"I'm concerned because the success of One Belt One Road and the development in the free economic zone of Khorgas will lead to less and less independence for Xinjiang Uyghur."

"Now, no one can stop China's power. All we can do is to provide side support to Uyghur independence groups to ensure they don't fall apart."

"The Uyghurs will be coming in like a flood of water to Kazakhstan soon. I wonder if the Chinese government will standstill."

"China will rather neglect when anti-government, independence groups leave Xinjiang Uyghur. There's no reason to hold on to Uyghurs who want independence that are leaving their sight."

To China, Uyghurs were not that important since all it needed was the land of Xinjiang Uyghur. If troublesome anti-government Uyghurs were leaving the region, the Chinese government would welcome it gladly. From the perspective of Kazakhstan, the massive influx of Uyghurs was a shortcut to growing national power because Kazakhstan's lack of population compared to its vast landmass. Soon, there would be an increase of open jobs in the country, and the problem would be the lack of manpower. That was why young people in Korea would be brought in to work for Kazakhstan.

"Your Highness, why don't we encourage Uyghurs to immigrate to Kazakhstan?"

"Will the Chinese government cooperate with it? It might seem like that the Uyghurs will be taken out of the region, but it can't help the eyes of the international community."

"The Chinese government won't be so obvious about it, but it will secretly help Uyghurs leaving the region. There's no reason to refuse it."

"Let's wait and observe the Uyghurs crossing the border this time."

Even though Uyghurs were immigrants, they belonged to China now. There was a need to pay attention to how China would handle its people leaving the country.

If China closed its eyes to people who were escaping by crossing the border, that would be the answer for the Chinese insinuation. The reason was that Uyghurs were people who were ethnically incompatible with China, regardless of race.

Although there was no freedom of religion in the communist state, the recognition of Islam itself meant that China was not recognizing Uyghurs as its citizens. That was why China would not care if Uyghurs left the country.