The opening up of Central Asia after the collapse and fragmentation of the Soviet

Union in 1991 gave rise to intense competition by Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia and

to a lesser extent (at least initially) Pakistan for political, economic and spiritual

influence in the region. Because Beijing has encouraged these mainly Muslim

countries to invest or trade with China it has therefore felt it necessary to demonstrate

its tolerance of Islam and show that its Muslim population was able to live and

worship in ways that were acceptable to the rest of the world of Islam. While Turkey,

as a modernising Muslim nation with a secular government, might be seen as its most

natural ally, the potential threat of pan-Turkism has led China to turn also to the

radical Islamic state of Iran as a countervailing force. In the nineteenth century, the

Great Game was the competition between the expanding empires of Russia and Great

Britain for hegemony in the heart of Asia. In the late twentieth century the new Great

Game had new players and new prizes, both secular and spiritual.