Rumors that the Uzbek government is handing over farmland to Chinese investors keep bubbling up despite repeated and categorical denials from officials, putting Tashkent in an uncomfortable spot.
The latest flare up came after a video made the rounds online purporting to show a local agricultural official threatening that the government would hand unproductive farmland over to Chinese investors, local outlet Kun.uz reported in mid-June. The employee quickly walked back the comments and the Ministry of Agriculture strongly denied anything of the sort was taking place.
But the latest episode reflects the growing distrust of China in Uzbekistan as President Shavkat Mirziyoyev seeks to deepen his country’s economic ties with the country’s largest trade partner.
“I’m sure such a partnership will serve the prosperity and flourishing of our countries and peoples,” Mirziyoyev said at the second Central Asia-China Summit in Astana, an event attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The rumors also come at a time of stress for Uzbek agriculture as Mirziyoyev’s efforts to liberalize the sector, which retains significant elements of the Soviet structure, have been slow, and local authorities have occasionally been heavy handed in enforcing cotton and silk quotas. All of that while Uzbek farms face growing pressure from climate change.
In the video at the center of the latest kerfuffle, a man identified as Z. Amonov, who Kun reported is a local agricultural official, speaks to the camera before pointing it at a group of people talking in a farm field.
“The Chinese came and started an examination of the land. Those who don’t want to sow, those who didn’t fulfill the silkworm and grain collection plan, those who didn’t pay taxes, their land will be given over,” he narrates in the video, according to Kun. “The Chinese want to take irrigated plots. We’re showing them 2,000 hectares. There will be more.”
Amonov continues, saying a list of noncompliant farmers was being compiled and that the video should be shared widely. Amonov, Kun reported, works in the Urgut District, just southeast of Samarkand along the Tajik border.
When the video took off on social media, Amonov tried to delete it and said there had been a “small misunderstanding,” according to Kun. “He explained that his initiative was striving to attract investment and create jobs,” the publication reported.
Disavowal of the assertions made in “a video” also came from the Ministry of Agriculture.
“Land ownership is strictly regulated, and it is illegal to grant land as property to foreign citizens or legal entities,” the Ministry said in a June 11 statement. “So, the claim about land given out to Chinese citizens or companies is unfounded, contradicts the law and does not correspond to reality.”
In April, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published an investigation, reporting it had found the government allegedly seized 1,800 hectares of farmland from at least 46 farmers in the Andijan Region in the Fergana Valley and handed the parcels over to Chinese entities. According to the US-funded outlet, there was evidence of a similar situation in the Qashqadaryo Region along the Turkmen border, near where the video in the latest incident was filmed.
The Uzbek government did not respond to an RFE/RL request for comment, but days after its report was published, Deputy Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade Ilzat Kasymov said foreign investors do not receive free land and that Chinese investment in the agricultural sector represents a very small portion of the total.
The latest round of rumors and discontent about sweetheart farmland deals for Chinese entities, and broader concerns about Chinese entities buying up property in Uzbek cities, began in February when influencers aired the claims on social media. Dozens of anti-China pages appeared on Instagram and calls to boycott China spread. Government figures and state-aligned media launched a campaign to tamp down the anti-China backlash in early March.
But there has been a harsh side to the government’s clampdown on anti-Chinese sentiment.
Between February and April of this year, police investigated a journalist, a former MP and a pair of bloggers for their criticism of China’s role in the country, the Germany-based Uzbek Forum for Human Rights documented in a June report.
As China’s influence and economic clout across Central Asia have grown so too has popular mistrust.
Anti-China protests have flared in Kyrgyzstan in 2002, the winter of 2018-2019, and 2020 over land transfers, treatment of Uighurs in China and economic projects. In 2016, widespread protests broke out in Kazakhstan, sparked by proposed land reforms that opponents claimed, in large part incorrectly, would allow China to buy up the country’s agricultural land.
Uzbek officials have defended the Chinese investments as a boon for a country that is looking to catch up economically after years of isolation. Chinese companies are now heavily investing in renewable energy, mining and factories, and the country has begun work on the massive China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.
Chinese exports to Uzbekistan have exploded since 2016 when Mirziyoyev became president and began opening up the country. Last year, Uzbekistan ran a $9.8 billion trade deficit with China. Uzbekistan presently owes China $3.8 billion, and Beijing has recently signaled it wants Central Asian governments to start paying their tabs.
