Presence without Encounters

Saxer, Martin (7. December 2018): Presence without Encounters. Pending Futures and the Chinese Non(engagement) in the Tajik Pamirs. In: Problems of Post-Communism

Abstract

China’s presence in the Tajik Pamirs is a paradox. While Chinese capital, geopolitical interests, and grandiose plans for new Silk Roads shape ambitions and fears, actual encounters with Chinese business people, engineers, or tourists remain rare and brief. In this context, people in the Pamirs find themselves waiting for pending futures conjured up in relation to China. Considering a future free economic zone, China trade across the Kulma Pass, and an old silver mine recently bought by a Chinese company, I analyze the paralyzing limbo Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region is facing at this particular historical conjuncture.

• Item Type: Journal article
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 637764
• EU Projects: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 637764: Highland Connections - Remoteness and Connectivity: Highland Asia in the World
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Ethnology
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology; 900 History and geography > 950 History of Asia
• ISSN: 1075-8216
• Language: English