Nathan Hamm over at The Argus gives his commentary on this article from the Asia Times dealing with “Central Asia’s Great Power Triangle” (Mr. Hamm’s term) and the erosion of human rights resulting from it. Just a sample:
The distinction between terrorists and those seeking independence seems to be something lost on the Bush administration. After 9/11, Chechnya was a non-issue and no concern for Tibetans or the Uighurs is voiced by the State Department anymore when there is an enormous distinction. al Qaeda is unfathomably more despicable than Uighur separatists and there is no excuse for the tactics used by Russia against innocent Chechens who happen to be male (I’m going to be clear - most Chechen militants are comparable to al Qaeda in my book, and Uighurs have used terrorism).
More Central Asian stuff - we finally got cable at the apartment yesterday, and last night me and the Marmotess were flipping through our greatly expanded channel selection when we hit upon National Geographic Channel Korea, at which point my better half exclaimed, “Ooo, it’s Mongolia! It’s Mongolia!” And sure enough, it was - NGC Korea was running the last episode of a seven-part series on Mongolia and Central Asia. Anyway, this last episode dealt with, among other things, some of the prodigious investments chaebols like Samsung, LG, and Daewoo have made in Mongolia and Central Asia. As I’ve mentioned before, this is an area of special Marmot concern - and for reasons completely unrelated to his Mongolian (future) wife. I was originally planning to write my masters thesis (which I never wrote) on Korean involvement in Central Asia - this was before the then-rector of my grad school (who also doubled as former President Chun Doo-hwan’s Unification Minister and, before that, his Vice-Minister of the Interior) told me, in the way that only he could, that such a topic was unimportant and I should write my thesis on, shockingly, Korean unification (not everyone though the idea sucked; Lee Han-bin, former Vice Prime Minister and even at his advanced age one of the most forward-thinking geopolitical minds I’ve had the fortune to meet, seemed to like it). Anyway, South Korean economic involvement in Central Asia has been quite significant - check out this overview of Korean investment in Uzbekistan, taken from “Korean Business and Culture in Former Soviet Central Asia” by Birgit N. Schlyter of the Forum for Central Asian Studies, Stockholm:
Like many other international parties, South Korea has been engaged in financing and constructing pipelines for oil or gas in Central Asia. However, something that has had greater social impact is South Korea’s engagement in consumer goods, labor markets and banking. Next to Russia, South Korea is the second largest trading partner with Uzbekistan and one of the biggest investors in this country.
The first and only Daewoo bank in Central Asia so far was opened in Tashkent in May 1997. It soon became one of the largest investment banks in the country. By that time the Daewoo production and marketing of cars and electronics in Uzbekistan had already developed into a very successful enterprise. Thanks to a high degree of autonomy South Korean business in Uzbekistan was not much affected by the Far Eastern economic crisis in the following years. The largest Daewoo car industry in Uzbekistan is located in Asaka, a small town to the east of Andijan in the Ferghana Valley. On the outskirts of Tashkent, a former Soviet factory, Zenit, where once electronic components for the army were produced, has been transformed into an “Uzdaewoo” (Uzbekistan Daewoo) assembly line factory. The wages offered at this factory are well above average Uzbek salary, though still low in comparison to South Korean standards.
Besides trade and investments the South Korean government has also taken active part in the economic reconstruction of Uzbekistan. Important contributions have been the training of Uzbek industrial workers in South Korea and South Korean aid in modernizing the Uzbek cotton industry, which was left with old, worn-out equipment and underdeveloped manufacturing routines after the Soviet collapse.
Perhaps to make Uzbekistan’s neo-colonial status official, Uzbek President Islam Karimov recently signed-off on the appointment of Kim Tae Bong - the South Korean head Kabool Textiles’s Uzbekistan branch, as deputy minister of light industry, ignoring a law forbidding foreigners from serving as public officials. I could only imagine the kind of public outrage a similar move would spark in South Korea, although as a classical liberal, let me make it clear that I have no problem with South Korea’s level of involvement in Central Asia - in fact, I fully back it. It’s nice to see South Korea acting like the world power it can be; as perhaps the world’s most successful rags-to-riches story and with ethno-linguistic links to Central Asia (including, of course, the large and prosperous Korean communities of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan), South Korea can play a very important role in the region if it chooses to do so. It should be said, however, that Korea really needs to begin training experts on Central Asia if it’s going to play this game effectively. Just from stories I’ve heard from both Mongolians and Western expats in Mongolia, Korean officials and businessmen often rub locals the wrong way out of sheer ignorance and insensitivity - a problem that a little education would probably rectify (and to be fair, Koreans are hardly alone in this regard, and have much better excuses than some). There is only one university in Korea - the Chonan campus of Danguk University, that runs a Mongolian Studies program. Likewise, Pusan University Of Foreign Studies has a Central Asian Studies department, but that’s it as far as I know (feel free to inform me of other programs if you know ‘em). In the coming Great Game, a deeper understanding of this region would go far to help Korea hang with the Big Boys, some of whom have generations of experience meddling in Central Asian affairs.
UPDATE: Nathan (no mister this time) makes some interesting comments.
