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 world leaders 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 to set up a SCO Development Bank to provide “stronger underpinnings” for security and economic cooperation among the bloc.
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 led by the US and its Western allies.
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 pair then walked shoulder to shoulder together after posing for a photo alongside other gathered leaders, with Xi gesturing for Putin to walk with him past the others, footage released by the Kremlin showed.
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.
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.
As Trump alarms nations with his global trade war and withdraws from international organizations and foreign aid, 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.
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.
