This archive report was first published on 26 October 2019.
On October 26, 2019, tensions in Kazakhstan escalated as hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan to voice their concerns over Chinese investment in the oil-rich country.
AFP correspondents witnessed officers detaining around a dozen people and manhandling them into police vans in the centre of Almaty.
According to police, a total of 26 people were arrested in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) to the north.
One citizen who was detained in Almaty expressed his opposition to "Sinicization" and the presence of Chinese factories in the country.
China is a key economic partner for Kazakhstan, which has described itself as the "buckle" in Beijing's trillion-dollar Belt and Road trade and infrastructure project.
However, the protests were not limited to concerns over Chinese investment. Another protester shouted "Old man out!" in reference to Kazakhstan's 79-year-old former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in March but remains constitutionally designated the "Leader of the Nation".
The protests were called by Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, an informal group led by long-time regime opponent Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has pledged to overthrow the regime of Nazarbayev and his handpicked successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
