Central Asians Studying Chinese In Ever Greater Numbers – Analysis
By Paul Goble
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Key Takeaways:
- Growing numbers of Central Asians are studying Chinese rather than Russian or English, primarily through 13 Confucius Institutes, Chinese scholarships, local universities, and private tutors, as Beijing promotes the language to expand soft power and support its Belt and Road presence.
- Nearly 150,000 Central Asians had taken Chinese proficiency tests by the end of 2024, with demand often exceeding available spaces, allowing the PRC to staff local operations with regional nationals and present itself as a positive long-term partner.
- The trend worries Moscow, which has long relied on Russian as a regional lingua franca, and could also affect Turkish and Western expectations of cultural influence, as elite language choices increasingly signal shifting geopolitical orientations.
A growing number of Central Asians are learning Chinese rather than Russian or English. Many see Chinese as the language of the future, and knowing it will help them find work with the growing number of Chinese institutions in Central Asia and build ties with Beijing (Xinhua, October 6). Most Central Asians studying Chinese do so in Chinese-funded institutions, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) offers scholarships to those who enroll or study in the PRC itself. A growing number of students are getting such instruction in local universities or from tutors, an indication that this Beijing effort at promoting its soft power in Central Asia is taking off (Piao, “Local Adaptability of Chinese Language Education in the Five Central Asian Countries from the Perspective of Language Planning,” September 8; Altyn Orda, October 6).
At present, the number of Central Asians doing so is still relatively small compared to those still studying Russian—the language of upward mobility during and since Soviet times and one that all Central Asians hoping to join the elites have had to learn—or English, especially since the countries of the region gained independence in 1991. Those learning Chinese are growing rapidly, however, and helping Beijing to expand and cement its influence (Chen and Zhang, “On Chinese learning strategies of learners from Central Asian countries: an analysis of gender, age, and learning duration effects,” May 9, 2024; CentrAsia, October 5).
The PRC seeks to expand trade and influence across Central Asia through its One Belt One Road initiative. It has built an ever-growing economic, political, and even military presence in the region (see China Brief, October 17, 2025). While many governments have welcomed this, some of their populations have been upset by the PRC’s growing presence and have even attacked Chinese who have come to live in their region (Window on Eurasia, February 22, November 26, 2025).
To prevent such clashes from growing and to win more friends in that region, Beijing has launched a major effort to grow its soft power. At the center of this policy is promoting the study of the Chinese language. This move lets the PRC use Central Asians rather than its own nationals on the ground and leads many Central Asians to see the PRC as a positive partner for the future. (For background on those calculations which have informed Beijing’s thinking over the last decade and more, see Window on Eurasia, January 28, 2014.)
To achieve these soft power goals, Beijing has opened 13 Confucius Institutes in Central Asia so far—five in Kazakhstan, four in Kyrgyzstan, two in Tajikistan, and two in Uzbekistan. Although Beijing funds them, most of these language-training centers are not independent but partner with local state universities, often offering dual degrees. Reports provide some idea of their size and growth that almost 150,000 Central Asians had taken the Chinese language proficiency test by the end of 2024, with a large share of those doing so in the previous three years, as well as claims that the number who want to enroll and then take such tests is exceeding the spaces available (Eurasian Research Institute, March 9, 2024; China Daily, June 16, 2025).
In addition to these Beijing-supported institutions and the Chinese government’s offering of scholarships to Central Asians who want to study Chinese in the PRC itself, an increasing number of state universities in Central Asia now offer instruction in Chinese, and private tutoring agencies are sprouting up, with several hundred such private centers now open across the region (Eurasian Research Institute, March 9, 2024).
The expansion of Chinese language knowledge in Central Asia concerns Moscow, which has long viewed the region as its backyard and has placed particular stress on using Russian as the language that ties these countries to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated that point this month at a Commonwealth of Independent States meeting in Turkmenistan (Svobodnaya Pressa, October 9). He and his regime will likely view this expansion of Chinese language knowledge in Central Asia as yet another sign of Moscow’s declining influence, a loss it now seems unable to slow, let alone stop or reverse. That was highlighted recently when Russian officials reacted negatively to Kazakhstan President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev’s use of Chinese, as he is a former diplomat who knows the language well and has not been shy about using it (see EDM, April 13; Tema Glavnoe, September 27).
Russia is far from the only country that will be affected by the continuing expansion of Chinese language knowledge in Central Asia. Türkiye, which has worked to promote a Turkic world with a shared alphabet and language, will be concerned about what this means for its influence in Central Asia. Some in the West have assumed that English would replace Russian as the region’s lingua franca and thus integrate Central Asia into the broader world.
Such fears are not groundless, but they are premature at least for the time being. The number of Central Asians who speak Chinese is still quite small, and far fewer Central Asian political leaders know the language and see it as a window on their futures. Such concerns in capitals far from Central Asia are likely to intensify in the coming weeks, now that Beijing is trumpeting what it calls “a boom” in Chinese language learning in Central Asian countries (Xinhua, October 6).
The foreign languages elites learn and use say a lot about how they view their countries’ position on the geopolitical map. At the end of Soviet times, Russians sometimes even joked about that prospect, noting that the optimists in the Soviet Union were learning English; the pessimists, Chinese; and the realists, how to use the Kalashnikov. Chinese language knowledge has not yet reached that level in Central Asia, but it is clear that if more Central Asians, especially more Central Asian elites, learn Chinese, it will affect more than just words. It will help shape how they see their countries’ geopolitical futures, making Central Asians’ acquisition of Chinese language knowledge a more important indicator of how they view their future and where their countries are headed than many infrastructure projects that typically attract far more attention.
- This article was published by The Jamestown Foundation
About Paul Goble
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .
