Uzbekistan

This case study analyzes the evolving China–Uzbekistan partnership under the Belt and Road Initiative, highlighting how a landlocked yet strategically located Uzbekistan has become a key transit, energy, and industrial hub in Central Asia. It examines the legal and financial architecture of cooperation—updated investment and tax treaties, policy-bank lending, and currency swaps—alongside trade patterns characterized by a resources-for-manufactures structure and China's persistent surplus. Major BRI projects in transport, energy, agriculture, and the digital economy are shown to foster industrialization, poverty reduction, and a gradual green transition, while cultural, educational, tourism, and media exchanges deepen soft power ties. The study also underscores governance, debt, environmental, and social challenges, and argues that the maturing, higher value–added cooperation model offers a representative template for China's broader South–South engagement strategy.