At the first China-Central Asia Summit in May in Xi’an, China’s President Xi sat prominently in front of an array of flags. With the flags of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan behind him, Xi described the necessity of „renewing our millennium-old friendship and opening up new perspectives for the future“. The timing was opportune. Until recently, Russia had been the unrivaled power in the region. However, with the massive northern neighbor apparently weakened due to the war with Ukraine, the five Central Asian countries are now experiencing a power vacuum that China aims to gradually fill.