If there was a one simple answer for the question, then that would be - “Uzbeks have not tasted one fruit “freedom” yet, like other Central Asian countries”.

From Caucasus to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan they all tasted freedom. Except Caucasus, all former Soviet countries tasted the fruit, called freedom, when it was still raw. Millions of people, who were in slavery, did not like the taste of the fruit. But for Uzbeks, whether it is sweet or savoury – it is worth to dream about to taste…

On the other hand, Russia and China are not capable of making economic miracles in Uzbekistan. And if even there were, they have plenty of priorities before the economic miracles.
Russia and China are aware of this – a nation without freedom and justice will be dreaming about freedom and justice as a solution to their problems. As long as the only obstacle in this way is Karimov and his family, the nation will be looking for ways to remove it.

If there won’t be any normal ways to remove it as in normal societies (opposition, independent media sources…), nation will look for any other means of doing it. And this, if we want, can be called Islamic radicalism or terrorism.

Russia and China, both know that there is a threat of radicalisation in their own gardens. These two countries play different politics than the West in both internally and externally. At the end, in America’s case, its war on terror and its supporting of Islamic terrorist forces (freedom fighters) being disaster for itself.
Today, for China and Russia the only live threatening danger, at least in the eyes of governments of these two countries, is “Islamic terrorism”. And the government of Uzbekistan is playing big role to develop “Islamic terrorism” threat in the region. Supporting Karimov and his family by those two countries is very fragile politics.

It is no longer a secret that within the government, groups against Karimov is growing. Russian political big fishes are focusing on (hoping from) these groups. As soon as this group comes up closer to power, a lot will change in Uzbekistan. Russia’s and China’s main concern is to divert, not only internal but external Islamic terrorism away from them. Until today, opposing the West’s view on Iran and Iraq issues kept terrorism away from Moscow and Beijing. But in Kremlin, people understood and taking it very serious that terrorism is no longer threatening Russia from distance, but it is inside and it is in its borders. Keep supporting Karimov and his family is the same as creating another problem like Chechnya. This is created and developed in Central Asia and may target China and Russia and it is called Islamic extremism.