TAJIKISTAN announced plans today to link with China’s telecommunications network to improve the mountainous, landlocked country’s internet access as Beijing’s influence in Central Asia grows.

Tajikistan has one of the slowest internet services in the world despite improvements in recent years, with all traffic going through a centre controlled by a government monopoly.

The project would be carried out alongside the construction of a highway linking Dushanbe, the country’s capital in the west, with a town on its border with China, state news agency Khovar said.

Khovar said the project would create “additional high-speed international fibre optic communication lines” to connect to global internet networks and “eliminate the communication isolation of the republic”.

Only 22% of Tajiks used the internet in 2017 as prices for the service were too high for the poorest population of the former Soviet Union’s Central Asian republics, recent World Bank figures showed.

Internet activity is tightly controlled by the state, with Reporters Without Borders saying main news sites and social media platforms are almost permanently blocked.

China has a vast online censorship apparatus that blocks Western news and social media platforms. – AFP, November 17, 2023.