Eroding Democracy? The BRI and its Impact on the Rule of Law in Central Asia

Abstract

This research is dedicated to the study of relationship between China’s foreign direct investments and the Rule of Law in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The study aims to establish a causal link between foreign direct investments and the Rule of Law. The research contributes to a broader debate about the legal impacts of China’s attempts to establish and increase a lasting presence in the markets and economies worldwide for the destination countries. It does so by drawing correlations between the countries’ overall performance in terms of the Rule of Law and increase in Chinese FDI, looking at the independence of judiciary, separation of powers, access to justice, accountability of the government and private actors under the law, stability of property, labour, and civic laws and freedoms, and related cases in the two countries between 2013 and 2020. The study concludes that the correlation between the rise and decline of Chinese FDI and fluctuations of the Rule of Law in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan indeed widely exists and one affects the other.