THE Karasu Bazaar, just 200 metres from Kyrgyzstan's heavily
patrolled frontier with Uzbekistan, is a bustling warren of
trading stalls fashioned out of metal shipping containers
stacked one on top of another. The wares on offer range from
bicycles to television sets and cosmetics.  The haggling is done
as it has been for years—in a mixture of Russian along with
Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tajik and other tongues. But these days a new
language can be heard in the commercial babble: Chinese.
Although the Chinese border is 260km (163 miles) away by road,
that has not been an obstacle to the Chinese traders who make up
the newest and fastest-growing presence at this Central Asian
trading post, outside Kyrgyzstan's second city of Osh. As
elsewhere, China's growing commercial force is penetrating the
remote lands beyond its western border.  What do Kyrgyzstanis
think of the new arrivals? Most shrug their shoulders. A trader
at the Karasu market is non-committal, describing the influx as
“tolerable”. Asked about the quality of