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As of 1996, China-Kyrgyzstan relations were an area of substantial uncertainty for the government in Bishkek.[1] The free-trade zone in Naryn attracted large numbers of Chinese businesspeople, who came to dominate most of the republic's import and export of small goods.[1] Most of this trade is in barter conducted by ethnic Kyrgyz or Kazaks who are Chinese citizens.[1] The Kyrgyzstani government has expressed alarm over the numbers of Chinese who are moving into Naryn and other parts of Kyrgyzstan, but no preventive measures had been taken as of 1996.[1]
The Akayev government also must have been solicitous of Chinese sensibilities on questions of nationalism because the Chinese do not want the independence of the Central Asian states to stimulate dreams of statehood among their own Turkic Muslim peoples.[1] Although the Kyrgyz in China have been historically quiescent, China's Uygurs (of whom there is a small exile community in Kyrgyzstan) have been militant in their desire to attain independence.[1] This is the major reason that Kyrgyzstan refused to permit the formation of an Uygur party.[1]
In the 1990s, trade with China grew enormously.[1] In some political quarters, the prospect of Chinese domination stimulated nostalgia for the days of Moscow's control.[1]
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