Silk Road legacy and China’s cultural diplomacy in Sino-Uzbek relations

In the mid-2020s, Uzbekistan became China’s primary strategic partner in Central Asia (CA). Sino-Uzbek ties’ political and economic nature has been well-researched, but there is a research gap regarding China’s cultural diplomacy towards Uzbekistan. This paper fills this gap by providing a scrutiny of China’s instrumentalization of the Silk Road legacy, the use of archaeological cooperation as a diplomatic tool, and China’s educational diplomacy towards Uzbekistan. It argues that while China’s cultural diplomacy towards Uzbekistan has been built upon China’s diplomacy in Central Asia, Beijing designed it carefully, recognizing the distinctiveness of Uzbekistan’s political and cultural traditions. China’s cultural diplomacy towards Uzbekistan has been mainly fostered via top-down initiatives from Beijing, Xi’an academic and cultural institutions, and professional and academic exchange rather than people-to-people bottom-up interactions. As such, this paper contributes to research on the legacy of the Silk Road in Chinese foreign policy, Sino-Uzbek relations, and China-Central Asian studies.