China deepens Central Asia security cooperation, pledges BRI investment protection

Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong hosted Central Asian interior ministers in Beijing, pledging joint action against terrorism, separatism, and extremism, and enhanced protection for Belt and Road Initiative investments. This continues China's established pattern of expanding security influence in Central Asia, with the new emphasis on protecting BRI assets signaling a hardening of economic-security linkage. The meeting's concrete outcomes remain unclear, but it underscores China's strategic push to counterbalance Russian and Western influence in the region.