  China in Central Asia  Riches in the near abroad  The West’s
recession spurs China’s hunt for energy supplies in its own
backyard  See article  Readers' comments     Strangely, the
Economist would think China as agressive although “China doesn’t
only buy loyalty with documents, but with money given at a low
percentage.”, and would think US is responsible although they
can only get "friendship" by guns.(US's so called "peace through
strength").   Fahrettin Tahir - you said Xinjiang is
traditionally called "East Turkestan". How many years of
tradition? Not more than 50 years because it all started from
the time Soviet Union wanted to split Xinjiang from China. And
in contrast, China has ruled this province for thousands of
years.  Instead of getting scared about such a remote threat
from China, why don't you scare more about Russia? After all,
these "Western Turkestan" were colonies of the USSR/Russia 20
years ago and the current Russian government still harbours
ambitions to get these territories back.   Chi