Tianjin, China
—
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has cast his country as a force for global economic stability and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support its partners, at a time when President Donald Trump wages a global tariff war and has decimated foreign aid under his “America First” policy.
Xi’s comments came during an address on Monday that is the centerpiece of a two-day summit orchestrated to play-up China’s global leadership and its close and enduring partnership with Russia, as the two neighbors seek to rebalance global power in their favor at the expense of the US and its allies.
“We should leverage the strength of our mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states and improve trade and investment facilitation,” Xi told more than 20 world leaders gathering in the Chinese port city of Tianjin for a summit of the Beijing- and Moscow-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The Chinese leader pledged 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states this year, and an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to an SCO banking consortium over the next three years.
Without naming the United States, Xi vowed to oppose “hegemonism,” “Cold War mentality” and “bullying practices” in an address to political heavyweights from across the world, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Those phrases are often deployed by Xi to criticize what he sees as a world order dominated by the US and its Western allies. As Trump alarms nations with his global trade war, withdrawals from international organizations, slashing of foreign aid and threats on social media, Beijing views the US as undermining the international order it worked to build – and sees an opportunity to ramp its own vision as an alternative.
“We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar of the world, and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization and make the global governance system more just and equitable,” Xi said in his opening remarks.
Echoing Xi’s remarks, Putin said the SCO laid the groundwork for a “new system” of security in Eurasia, positioning it as an alternative to Western-led alliances that he has long railed against.
The new system “would replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, take into account the interests of the broadest possible range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow attempts by some states to ensure their security at the expense of others,” Putin said.
The summit is a showcase for closer ties between China and Russia, as well as the friendship struck up over the years by their two autocratic leaders.
The deep personal rapport between the two men was on show Sunday evening, when Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a welcome banquet for attending leaders.
Footage released by Russian state news agency RIA showed Xi and Putin gesturing animatedly and smiling as they chatted at the event, showing a different side of the typically restrained Chinese leader – and his warm and relaxed demeanor with his Russian counterpart.
The SCO summit is also the leaders’ first opportunity to meet since Putin’s summit with Trump in Alaska earlier this month – and comes as Putin resists Western pressure to end his onslaught in Ukraine.
Just last week, Moscow’s forces carried out their second largest aerial attack to date on Ukraine.
On Monday, Putin used his speech at the SCO summit to reiterate his talking points on the war in Ukraine, saying the crisis “did not arise as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but rather as a consequence of a coup d’état in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West.”
Moscow launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after Russia’s troops previously seized the Crimea and swathes of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian leader praised efforts by China and India at facilitating the resolution of the crisis, and described the “understanding” reached with Trump at the Alaska meeting as “opening the way to peace in Ukraine.”
“During the bilateral meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow, I will, of course, inform my colleagues in more detail and thoroughly about the results of the negotiations in Alaska,” Putin said, adding that he had already informed Xi “in detail” during a lunch on Sunday.
Observers said the Russian leader would have used the gathering to show that he’s not alone on the global stage.
“(Putin) will seek to frame Russia’s resilience and China’s backing as evidence that Western sanctions and isolation have not worked,” Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said ahead of the gathering.
“At the same time, he will try to deepen strategic alignment with Beijing, in particular to ensure Chinese supply of dual-use goods and equipment to Russia (and) to show that Moscow has strong partners even as Washington ramps up its push to end the war.”
China has emerged as a key pillar of diplomatic and economic support for Putin’s regime since the early days of the Ukraine invasion, even as it claims neutrality in the conflict.
Chinese firms have bought up swaths of discounted Russian oil and provided it with critical trade, including dual use goods that Western leaders say have powered Russia’s defense industrial base. Beijing defends its “normal trade” with Russia.
Trump earlier this summer threatened to take aim at that partnership, saying China could face major tariffs on its goods if it continued to purchase fuel from Russia as it wages war.
But even as the US imposed such penalties on India last week, it has so far slow-rolled that threat as it seeks a broader trade agreement with Beijing.
Trump’s whopping 50% tariff on India has soured ties with Modi – and accelerated a nascent and cautious rapprochement between New Delhi and Beijing.
The Indian leader met with Xi on Sunday in his first trip to China in seven years, as both countries face stiff US tariffs and Western scrutiny over their relationships with Russia.
Xi, Putin and Modi share a laugh at security summit
On Monday, Modi highlighted his ties with both his host and the Russian leader at the SCO summit, embracing Putin before the two walked over hand in hand to greet Xi. The three leaders then shared a conversation marked by smiles and laughter.
Modi and Putin also held a nearly hour-long private meeting in the Russian presidential limousine, the Aurus, while en route to their formal talks, according to Russian state media.
“India and Russia have always stood shoulder to shoulder even in the most difficult times,” Modi said at the start of the meeting. “We have been in constant dialogue on the situation in Ukraine. We welcome all the recent efforts for peace.”
A readout from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the two leaders discussed the latest developments concerning Ukraine. “(Modi) reiterated his support for the recent initiatives that have been taken to address the conflict in Ukraine, and emphasized the need to expedite a cessation of the conflict, and find a durable peace settlement,” the ministry said.
Observers say that Xi sees the gathering – and a massive military parade that he’ll host on Wednesday in Beijing, expected to be attended by Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as well as some two dozen other leaders – as a critically timed diplomatic push.
Chinese officials touted this year’s SCO as the largest yet, saying ahead of the event that 20 leaders from across Asia and the Middle East would join. In addition to Russia, China and India, SCO members include Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
