Author: David Batashvili
China Radar: South Caucasus is a monthly publication by Rondeli Foundation (GFSIS) dedicated to China’s activities and influence in the three nations of South Caucasus.
With the global rise of great power tensions and competition related to China’s role in the world, Rondeli Foundation began to take a closer look at China’s role in our own region. Since July 2020, we have been publishing China’s Activities in the South Caucasus digest that exhaustively covers events and developments in this regard. China Radar builds on China’s Activities digest to provide experts, researchers, civil servants and other observers of China’s foreign strategy with a comprehensive summary of China’s political, diplomatic, economic, informational, soft power and other activities towards Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as these nations’ stances and actions concerning China.
Sources of information provided in China Radar can be found in the issues of China’s Activities digest covering the relevant months unless indicated otherwise. All issues of both China Radar and China’s Activities digest can be found on Rondeli Foundation’s China Watch page.
Strategic Partnerships
Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party chairman, Irakli Garibashvili, said on 2 June that everyone “should be happy to see China’s interest” in the Georgian “strategic port” of Anaklia.
On 4 June, prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze called Salome Zourabichvili’s criticism of China’s involvement in the Anaklia port project a “very serious provocation and speculation.”
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On 20 June, the People’s Power party – entity closely affiliated with the ruling Georgian Dream party – attacked the US ambassador to Georgia, Robin Dunnigan, for criticizing the Chinese company, CCCC, involved by the Georgian government in the Anaklia port construction project.
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On 31 July, Kobakhidze said that China’s participation in the Anaklia port project was of “utmost importance.”
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On 3 July, China and Azerbaijan granted their bilateral relationship the status of strategic partnership. The upgrade was announced during a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
China’s Presence, Activities and Influence in the South Caucasus
Diplomatic Messaging
On 11 June, China’s ambassador to Georgia, Zhou Qiang, highlighted China’s and Georgia’s commitment “to cooperating on BRI.”
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On 18 and 30 July, China’s chargé d’affaires in Armenia, Chen Min, held a press conference and an embassy reception respectively. At both of these events he promoted Beijing’s foreign policy concept of “building a community with a common future for mankind.”
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On 30 July, China’s ambassador to Georgia, Zhou Qiang, also promoted the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind at a reception in the Chinese embassy.
Economic Involvement and Connections
On 11 July, China’s ambassador to Armenia, Fan Yong, stated that as of 2023 trade between China and Armenia had increased by 120 percent as compared to 2020.
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In an 18 June interview, the US ambassador to Georgia, Robin Dunnigan, stated regarding the construction project of the Anaklia port in Georgia that “the company that the [Georgian] government awarded the contract to, CCCC, is majority-owned by the Chinese Communist Party and is known to be affiliated with the Chinese military.”
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On 18 July, the Chinese ambassador to Georgia, Zhou Qiang, said in an interview that the port of Anaklia “will have a great impact on the relations between the two countries.”
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Armenian media reported on 10 July that, starting on 3 September 2024, China Southern Airlines would be launching Urumqi-Yerevan-Urumqi flights with the frequency of two flights a week.
South Caucasus Actors Expressing Support for China
On 31 July, Mikheil Daushvili, a member of the “For Georgia” political party led by Giorgi Gakharia, expressed support for China’s participation in the Anaklia port project.