Why is Beijing building an observatory in Tajikistan?

A new Chinese 'super' observation station for climate and environment monitoring has been inaugurated in Tajikistan, as China aims to advance into a developing technology arena and enhance its green credentials in Central and South Asia .

The station – located in Shahritus, a city in southwestern Tajikistan near where the country's borders with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan meet – was first mentioned by China's Xinhua news agency on June 16, but the Tajik media did not mention this.

It is part of a growing constellation of stations in countries along Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), operated by or in partnership with Lanzhou University.

It is the latest addition to a growing network of LiDAR (a kind of laser light radar) systems that stretches along a major corridor of BRI, prone to extreme weather conditions and intertwined with Beijing's broader technological ambitions.

But the station's location and the Tajik government's close cooperation with Beijing have also raised questions about whether it could be used for surveillance and security purposes.

While its extent is unclear, Bradley Jardine, director general of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, told RFE/RL that stations such as Shahritus "rely on stratospheric meteorological balloons – perhaps similar in nature to the object it recently crossed the United States”.

Earlier this year, a Chinese high-altitude balloon, which Beijing says was strictly for climate purposes, flew over Alaska, western Canada and much of the United States before being shot down by the US air force. US officials said it was carrying large quantities of equipment used to spy on sensitive areas. The Canadian military also said it was used for surveillance.

“There may be surveillance capabilities on the border with Tajikistan,” Jardine said.

LiDAR systems help scientists precisely map and examine natural and man-made environments, characteristics that are a key component of intelligent, autonomous and electric vehicles, an industry in which China is an emerging global leader.

Projects such as the LiDAR network were primarily designed to enable China to refine its domestic technology, sharpen its lead in the autonomous and electric vehicle industry, and help improve its environmental performance overseas. LiDAR is a technology widely used in autonomous driving, even if Tesla, for example, does not use it.

Beyond LiDAR

The LiDAR network begins in the northwestern Chinese city of Lanzhou and stretches across Xinjiang province to Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Israel and Algeria, with more than 20 stations.

Huang Jianping, a professor at Lanzhou University working on the project, told Xinhua that the station provides comprehensive data on dust, pollutants and weather conditions in key areas of Central Asia and can help warn of conditions extreme weather, as well as providing data on climate change.

The new facility in Tajikistan is located in one of the hottest areas in the country, and the Lanzhou University team – which has been building the network of stations since 2016 – says the location will help laser-generated 3D maps of climate-impact regions .

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon attends the round table discussion during the China-Central Asia summit in Xi'an, China May 19.
But while China says the new station in Tajikistan has a clear environmental dimension, it also fits into a growing list of dual-use or covert Chinese projects in the Central Asian country.

Lanzhou University has clear ties to China's defense industry and, according to a 2019 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), is among at least 68 other Chinese universities that are "officially described as part of the defense system or [which] are supervised by China's defense industry agency, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense."

China has also funded, built, and in some cases helped operate outposts and surveillance and security facilities in Tajikistan, along its long, porous border with Afghanistan. One such facility is operated near Shaymak and is part of a larger joint Chinese-Tajik initiative to renovate and modernize old Soviet-era patrols near Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor, which borders a small stretch of Xinjiang province.

Dushanbe has also approved the construction of a Chinese-funded police outpost near the country's border with Afghanistan in 2021.

Beijing continues to fear that Islamist militants in Afghanistan could enter China or destabilize the region, and much of its security footprint in Tajikistan is believed to be tied to this issue.

In addition, in 2021, China opened an observation station on Lake Sarez, Tajikistan, for environmental research and "international disaster reduction and prevention," according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

While little information is available about its operation, some analysts have noted that the facility could also be used for surveillance and monitoring beyond its environmental goals.

It is unknown how the new Shahritus station will fit into this trend, if at all.

Jardine adds that China's focus on security has largely focused on the Pamir Mountains and Wakhan Corridor, while the new station is located in a different part of the country "where China's security imperatives are less immediate".

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The article Why is Beijing building an observatory in Tajikistan? comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/perche-pechino-costruisce-un-osservatorio-in-tagikistan-perche/ on Tue, 04 Jul 2023 20:43:51 +0000.