In this presentation, Dr. Mostowlansky examines societal and material change at the geographical meeting point of Tajikistan and China through the prism of roads and the projects of modernity that come with them. Over the past fifteen years, Chinese road construction in this borderland has, along with other investments across Central Asia, fundamentally shaped social, economic and political processes. In this regard, the One Belt One Road strategy is the latest, most overarching and coherent formulation of such endeavours. Taking the example of the Tajikistan-China borderland, this talk attempts to demonstrate that the social encounters resulting from these interventions are grounded in local and historically specific contexts. In this regard, it argues that the study of processes of Cold War history, and its afterlives, contributes to an understanding of contemporary expectations of emerging infrastructure, economy and political rule in the region.