CENTRAL ASIAN RESEARCH IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN 2000S

In the beginning of the 2000s China came across a new geostrategic structure in the West - the regional security system in Central Asia has changed dramatically. It was the result of US invasion in Afghanistan and the military actions against terrorist groups in the whole region. Chinese government decided to transform the former "Shanghai five" mechanism into a regional organization - Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an intergovernmental mutual-security organization, which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai. Chinese researchers, formerly majoring in the USSR, then started to cooperate in newly formed structures like Shanghai Centre of SCO studies under the Fudan University. Many other centres were established in regions, such as The Central Asia Studies Centre at Lanzhou University and similar in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Ili, Shihezi, Urumqi), Shaanxi, Shanghai in different organizational forms, but they shared a common interest - Central Asia Studies. First two research centres, as it was already told, were established under the regional branch of CASS in Urumqi: one was the centre of cultural studies (est. 1980), the other one had no specialty but was interested more in the region (est. 1985). This sphere and cooperation forms have become the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' (CASS) number one priority, more local ones, but central as well. Under governmental programs current grant funding has started - from the governmental level through the provincial (autonomous region) to the local one. It has an important role in forming new structures and inviting new staff - government also stated that some leading experts should transfer their experience from the centre (Beijing) to regions (for instance, Urumqi, XUAR). Several researchers, such as Fan Zhiping, Wang Guifang, Li Sheng, Ma Dazheng prepared complex studies on geopolitics, trans-border management and international relations in Central Asia in the late 2000s. Security problems were in the centre of interest of Li Jingze, Zhao Changqin, Zhu Chenghu, Cheng Da, etc. Since the beginning of the 2000s the number of Chinese studies in Central Asia problems has increased not only in quantity, but in quality too. They started to use modern western theories, concepts and methods dealing with the region. It is obvious when one works with the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI's database). Chinese government have paid great attention to the financial support for the Research Centres on CA at different levels and individuals as well.