Pakistan’s The News reports from Kazakhstan:
In the past few years, Chinese fruit, vegetables, TV sets, T-shirts and tires have flooded markets along the old Silk Road in former Soviet Central Asia. Each day, all along the Chinese border, hundreds of tractor-trailers rattle west.
These goods are the most visible sign of Beijing’s growing power here as China, Russia, the United States and others compete for financial and strategic advantage on the borders of some of the world’s most turbulent countries, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s a struggle in which China seems to be gaining the upper hand. [Full text]