Tianjin, China
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a veiled swipe in the United States on Monday as he criticised “bullying practices” and criticised his country as the new leader in global governance when President Donald Trump’s first US foreign policy was overturning the world.
“The House rules of some countries should not be imposed on other countries,” XI told more than 20 world leaders who are gathering at a two-day summit formed to sort out China’s global leadership and its close and enduring partnerships as the two neighbors try to ease global power in favor of the US and its alliance.
The Beijing and Moscow-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference in Tianjin, North Port City, is China’s largest diplomatic event, portraying political heavyweights, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Receiving Erdogan.
At the summit, XI pledged 2 billion yuan ($280 million) grants to SCO member countries this year, and pledged 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to the SCO Banking Consortium over the next three years.
“We need to leverage the strength of mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states to improve trade and investment facilitation,” the Chinese leader told a guest during his remarks.
Later that day, XI announced a new global governance initiative. This is a sequel to three previous “initiatives” on security, development and civilization that serve as a loose overview of the vision of a reconstructed international order.
“We look forward to working with all countries for a more fair and equitable global governance system,” Xi said, pledging to increase representatives and voices from developing countries, practice multilateralism, reflecting years of call from the Global South.
“We should continue to demolish without building walls. We ask for integration, not separation,” he added.
Xi’s vision opposes what Beijing considers as the basis for the US-led world order, and opposes alliances like NATO. This exists in his view to enforce a system based on Western rules, raises doubts on the concept of universal human rights, and is considered dominant in the West in the United Nations and other bodies.
Without directly naming the US, XI vowed to oppose “hegemonism,” “Cold War mentality,” and “bullying practices.”
He sees Trump as a world trade war, withdrawing from international organizations, reducing threats on social media, and seeing opportunities to substitute the international order that works to build the United States, and increase its own vision as an alternative.
“We need to advocate for equal, orderly, multipolar and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, making global governance systems more fair and fair,” Xi said in his opening remarks.
Reflecting Xi’s remarks, Putin said the SCO laid the foundation for Eurasian “new system” and positioned it as an alternative to the Western-led alliance that has been attacking for a long time.
The new system “will replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, take into account the interests of the widest possible countries and will truly balance it, and will not allow attempts by some states to be safe at the expense of others,” Putin said.
The summit is a showcase for close ties between China and Russia, a friendship attacked over the years by two authoritarian leaders.
A deep personal relationship between the two men came when XI and his wife Penn Liyuan held a welcoming banquet for the leaders attended on Sunday evening.
Footage released by Russian state news agency RIA showed Xi and Putin animated and smiled as they chatted at the event, showing another side of the typically restrained Chinese leader, showing his warm and relaxed attitude at his Russian counterpart.
The SCO Summit is also the first opportunity to meet leaders since Putin’s Presidential Summit with Trump in Alaska in August, and will resist Western pressure to end the onslaught in Ukraine.
Last week, Moscow’s troops carried out Ukraine’s second largest air attack to date.
On Monday, Putin used his speech at the SCO summit to reiterate his controversy over the war in Ukraine, saying the crisis “due to the result of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but rather as a result of a Ukrainian coup that was supported and induced in the West.”
Moscow began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after Russian troops previously seized Crimea and seized the eastern Ukraine belt.
The Russian leader praised China and India’s efforts to promote a crisis resolution, explaining the “understanding” that Trump reached Trump at the Alaska Conference, saying that he “paving the path to peace in Ukraine.”
“The bilateral meeting scheduled for today and tomorrow will, of course, provide more detailed and thorough information to colleagues about the outcome of the negotiations in Alaska,” Putin said, adding that he notified XI “Details” during lunch on Sunday.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told Russian state media that Putin had discussed Ukraine and world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, including Xi and Modi.
Ushakov downplayed the possibility of a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky.
“Everyone is talking (or) about the meeting between Putin and Zelensky (or) and as far as I know, there was no specific agreement on this between Putin and Trump,” Ushakov told Russian state media journalist Pavel Zalbin on Monday.
The observers said Russian leaders will use the assembly to show that he is not alone at the global stage.
“(Putin) aims to frame Russia’s resilience and Chinese support as evidence that Western sanctions and isolation are not working,” Li Mingjiang, associate professor of International Studies in Singapore, said ahead of the rally.
“At the same time, he will try to deepen his strategic alignment with Beijing, particularly showing that Moscow has a strong partner despite the fact that China’s double goods and equipment are being supplied to Russia, increasing the driving force behind Washington to end the war.”
China has emerged as an important pillar of diplomatic and economic support for the Putin regime since the early days of its invasion of Ukraine, despite its claims of neutrality in conflict.
Chinese companies purchased discounted Russian oil strips, including double-use goods that Western leaders say empowered Russia’s defense industrial base, and provided important trade to it. Beijing defends “normal trade” with Russia.
Earlier this summer, Trump threatened to target that partnership, saying that China could face major tariffs on goods if it continues to buy fuel from Russia at war.
But even if the US imposes such penalties on India last week, the threat so far has slowed down as it calls for a broader trade agreement with Beijing.
White House Trade Senior Counselor Peter Navarro on Monday said the show of unity between Russia, China and India was “troubled.”
“It’s time for Modi to step up. I admire Modi. I love the people of India,” Navarro told White House reporters on Monday. “It was a shame to see Putin and Xi Jinping, the world’s largest authoritarian dictator, Modi, as the world’s largest democracy leader, come into bed. That makes no sense.”
Trump’s whopping 50% tariffs on India have made it worse ties with Modi and accelerated a careful settlement in the new birth between New Delhi and Beijing.
Indian leaders met XI on their first trip to China in seven years on their first trip to Japan. This is because both countries face US tariffs and Western scrutiny over their ties with Russia.
xi, Putin and Modi share laughs at security summit
On Monday, Modi highlighted the relationship between both the host and the Russian leader at the SCO summit, accepting Putin before the two held hands and greeted XI. The three leaders then shared a conversation marked with smiles and laughter.
Modi and Putin also held a nearly hour-long private meeting in the Russian presidential limousine Alls, heading for formal talks, according to Russian national media.
“India and Russia were always on shoulders, even at their most difficult times,” Modi said at the start of the meeting. “We have been constantly talking about the situation in Ukraine. We welcome all of our recent efforts for peace.”
Readings from the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two leaders discussed the latest developments in Ukraine. “(Modi) has repeatedly supported his support for the recent initiative taken to deal with the Ukrainian conflict, promoting a halt of the conflict and underscoring the need to find a durable peace reconciliation,” the ministry said.
Observers say XI is watching the rally — and the massive military parade he will host in Beijing on Wednesday is expected to be attended by Putin, North Korean Kim Jong Un and around two dozen other leaders as a much-timed diplomatic push.
Chinese officials said this year’s SCO as the biggest SCO, ahead of the event, in which 20 leaders from Asia and the Middle East will take part. In addition to Russia, China and India, members of the SCO include Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
