ABSTRACT
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.
