Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire

China’s evolving relations with Central Asia. Central Asia has a habit of being a place where China first floats its major foreign policy ideas. The upcoming SCO Heads of State Summit in Tashkent may be Xi Jinping’s first trip outside the country since COVID, while the region was where he first announced the Belt and Road Initiative. Yet, China’s approach to the region is heavily shaped by China’s policies in Xinjiang, and the reality of being a regional neighbourhood where violence has a habit of breaking out. Central Asia is where China and Russia meet, and the site of one of the great underexplored geopolitical shifts of the past few years. Raffaello Pantucci, co-author of the recently published Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire, will discuss his new book which draws on over a decade’s research and travel around the Eurasian heartland.