Russian-Chinese relations traditionally attract the attention of world politicians and experts. Moreover, their importance is increasing today, against the background of a sharp deterioration in the international situation. It can be argued that the Moscow-Beijing link has become one of the last strategic foundations of stability in Central Asia, without which a huge region can descend into chaos.

In this sense, the relations of the countries of the region with Russia and China on the creation of high-tech projects, which primarily include the exploration and development of outer space, play a key role. The Central Asian countries will have to carefully weigh and correlate their development programs in order not to voluntarily or unwittingly clash the interests of Moscow and Beijing on their territory.

Such programs include, in particular, cooperation between Uzbekistan and China within the framework of the Suffa project, on the completion, or, as they say, bringing to mind, an astronomical observatory on a high-altitude plateau, with the appropriate name. This project was started during the late USSR, but, like many construction projects of that period, it was stopped in 1991. The project was the construction of the largest telescope, with the help of which it was planned to make a huge breakthrough in the study of the Universe.

A few years ago, it was decided to resume the frozen construction in the Russian-Uzbek format, but geopolitical events intervened in the situation again, which China is trying to take advantage of today, taking into account Russian “employment”. After 1991, Uzbekistan has been a sovereign country, but this status all the more requires that the preservation of the political and economic balance in the triangle of relations between Moscow, Beijing and Tashkent is an absolute priority.

Objectively Tashkent can be understood, because it was on this land about six hundred years ago that the famous astronomer Ulugbek lived, who founded one of the most famous observatories of the Middle Ages. China has undoubtedly heard a lot about the historical Uzbek background in the study of outer space. However, the problem is that at the time of Ulugbek, the United States and NATO did not exist, but today they do. And thus, the opponents of all three capitals will take advantage of the costs of possible underlying disagreements when Central Asia becomes completely out of space.

In addition, there are a number of purely technical issues in this issue that cannot be a figure of silence between the closest partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes Russia, China, and Uzbekistan. No matter what has been said in recent years about high Chinese technologies, which are undoubtedly at a fairly high level, but Tashkent’s cooperation with Beijing within the framework of the Suffa project is unprofitable for the Uzbek side. The Chinese do not yet have the necessary competence of specialists and technologies in this direction.

And this is not just skepticism, but a question of general security. In the case of the “Suffa”, the Chinese side does not use its own, domestic ideas, but gets access to the latest developments of partners, which it subsequently passes off as its own. Such an approach can negate the prospects for the development of these technologies, which no one will be able to use after such an intervention.

In addition to the technical part, there are also foreign policy risks. In the event of China’s increased participation in Uzbekistan’s strategic projects, which include not only an observatory (in fact, a satellite base), but also a nuclear power plant, Tashkent draws a dilemma, a vise, of relations with the same NATO bloc and the European Union.

China faces a unique task: to show itself to the whole world in a different quality by removing the “seal” of the country that copies the products of leading brands. Otherwise, it will be difficult for him in tomorrow’s world, based solely on a unique, time-ahead intellectual product. The times when large high-tech Chinese companies, including Huawei, regularly became involved in international scandals, due to suspicions of commercial espionage, should be a thing of the past. Such an image cannot correspond to one of the main geopolitical poles, the title of which China claims.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev approved the charter of the Russian-Uzbek observatory on the Suffa plateau, located in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan. This gives some hope for the placement of the right accents in the most important project and confidence in the completion of construction.

The high-altitude, and even higher, space, Suffa project should not become a strategic mistake of China on this path. But at the moment, a certain skepticism is still present.

A fundamentally important point is the above-mentioned participation of the Russian Federation, China and the Republic of Uzbekistan in joint integration organizations, which include the SCO. These ties should become the basis for determining the balance on all issues of cooperation, including space, in order to avoid mistakes at the geopolitical level that cannot be corrected.