RobertB
December 15th, 2007, 07:26 PM
New 'Great Game' for Central Asia riches
By DOUGLAS BIRCH and MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writers Sat Dec 15, 2:28 PM ET
KHORGOS, Kazakhstan - The driver of the 18-wheel tractor-trailer from China idling at the Kazakhstan-China border said apples were the cargo he brought to Almaty, Kazakhstan's booming commercial center.
For Kazakhs, there's a tart irony in the shipment.
Almaty's region is where the first apple trees were found and the first apple orchards planted. The city was a center of the Soviet Union's s fruit industry. Its very name means "Father of Apples."
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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071215/ap_on_re_as/china_s_great_game
By DOUGLAS BIRCH and MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writers Sat Dec 15, 2:28 PM ET
KHORGOS, Kazakhstan - The driver of the 18-wheel tractor-trailer from China idling at the Kazakhstan-China border said apples were the cargo he brought to Almaty, Kazakhstan's booming commercial center.
For Kazakhs, there's a tart irony in the shipment.
Almaty's region is where the first apple trees were found and the first apple orchards planted. The city was a center of the Soviet Union's s fruit industry. Its very name means "Father of Apples."
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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071215/ap_on_re_as/china_s_great_game