Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should cooperate further in economics and security to move away from the Western-led world order, China’s President Xi Jinping has said.
Xi’s address to members of the Eurasian bloc on Monday delivered a statement of intent about the rise of the so-called Global South.
“We should advocate for equal and orderly multi-polarization of the world,” he said.
Steve Tsang, author of the forthcoming book, China’s Global Strategy under Xi Jinping, told Newsweek that Xi’s comments showed how he was working “to transform the existing international order into a Sino-centric one.”
Why It Matters
The SCO is a Eurasian bloc established in 2001 which has expanded to include economic heavyweights like India to become a counterweight to the western G7 (Group of Seven) countries.
Xi’s comments about closer economic and security cooperation among members chime with the vision of his ally, Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly called for a pivot away from the U.S.-led global order.
China has been trying to present itself as a peacemaker amid trade tensions with the United States, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
What To Know
Xi addressed more than 20 world leaders during the SCO summit held in China’s northern port city of Tianjin.
He said the bloc had set a model for a new type of international relations and should take advantage of a “mega-scale market” to boost trade and cooperation in energy, science and artificial intelligence.
China has invested $84 billion in other SCO countries and backed 10,000 students joining Beijing’s “Luban” vocational education program, Xi said as he described how the summit could allow even more economic development and cooperation.
He also pledged 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in funding for SCO member states this year, and called for an SCO Development Bank to be set up as soon as possible.
Without naming the U.S. but in an apparent swipe at a world order dominated by Washington and its allies, Xi vowed to oppose “hegemonism,” “Cold War mentality” and “bullying practices.”
Xi’s comments come as President Donald Trump wages a tariff war on China and the rest of the world, and echo Putin’s speech at the same summit for the SCO to form a “new system” of security in Eurasia that would “replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models.”
Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told Newsweek that Xi was working to transform the existing international order into a Sino-centric one on development, security and civilization.
This is based on Xi’s argument that with the Global South accounting for a clear majority of the UN’s member states and the bulk of global population, it was fundamentally undemocratic to allow a small elitist democratic West led by a hegemonic U.S. to set international rules and norms, Tsang said.
With China being the leader of the Global South, China could transform that to reflect the interests and priorities of these countries, he added.
“Xi is getting traction because Trump has so discredited the US and the liberal international order, and pushed its allies and partners away,” Tsang said.
What People Are Saying
At the SCO summit, China’s President Xi Jinping said: “We should advocate for equal and orderly multi-polarization of the world, inclusive economic globalization and promote the construction of a more just and equitable global governance system,” adding “we must take advantage of the mega-scale market.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin said at the same summit that the SCO “unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others.”
Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told Newsweek: “If one creates a vacuum, someone else will come and fill it. Xi has a good reason to say: ‘Thank you President Trump, you’re doing a great job in making China great again.’”
What Happens Next
In another diplomatic statement of intent, a massive military parade will take place on Wednesday which is expected to be attended by Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, as well as some two dozen other leaders.
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