KHORGOS: Kazakhstan: Traders travel freely through the bustling Khorgos special economic zone that straddles the Kazakhstan-China border, but signs on the Chinese side bear a blunt warning - no veils or long beards allowed.
The drastic measures have included placing as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities, including ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, in internment camps that Beijing downplays as"vocational education centres".Uighur wives of Pakistani traders have also been swept up in the dragnet.
Kazakh authorities are holding an activist on suspicion of inciting inter-ethnic hatred after he highlighted the treatment of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang, while an escaped Chinese national who described conditions in an internment camp has been denied asylum. China's investments in Central Asia pre-date BRI as Beijing has long seen development in the region as key to pacifying Xinjiang, Pantucci said.
"The goods are cheaper there. Every day we can come to the border without it like a border," said Aida Massimzhanova, a resident of Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty. Authorities have banned a number of Muslim practices in Xinjiang, including wearing"abnormal" beards.Gaukhar Kurmanaliyeva associates the special economic zone on the border with the long arm of Beijing after her cousin Asqar Azatbek was allegedly snatched by unknown Chinese people on the Kazakh side in December 2017.