Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping during the SCO summit, in this photo supplied by Russian state media. <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — President Xi Jinping used a mix of bonhomie and economic allure this week to send Donald Trump a clear message: Beijing has too much global clout to be dictated by the US.<\/p>\n
Cameras captured the Chinese leader in a rare, unscripted huddle on Monday with Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi \u2014 his most powerful partners in resisting America on the world stage \u2014 at a summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. At one point, Xi held the hand of his Indian counterpart, as the three men laughed casually, a striking scene given just months earlier New Delhi and Beijing were seen as rivals.<\/p>\n
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The images were a victory for Xi\u2019s decade-long political project to build an alternative to the US-led world order. Hours after the trio gathered at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization event, Beijing signed a major gas pipeline deal with Moscow \u2014 rebuking Trump\u2019s efforts to use tariffs to prise India and China away from Russian energy purchases.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina has developed and sequenced its messages perfectly, and the optics of Xi, Putin and Modi embracing each other are coming sharply into view,\u201d said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations at Shanghai\u2019s East China Normal University. \u201cThis week will be remembered as one in which the world shifted fundamentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since taking power in 2012, Xi has methodically built up blocs outside the orbit of Washington\u2019s influence. While such groupings have often been dismissed as talking shops, Trump\u2019s trade war is giving them new purpose.<\/p>\n
Xi is dangling economic carrots to maximize cohesion. The SCO is being kitted out with a new development bank, he announced as the group held its largest summit since being founded in 2001, without revealing details on funding. Brazil\u2019s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, meanwhile, plans to convene a snap virtual meeting of BRICS leaders Monday to discuss how to unite against Trump\u2019s trade policy, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n
Beijing will also showcase its might as a growing military power at a parade Wednesday set to be attended by leaders including North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un and Putin, as China unveils new hypersonic weapons and combat drones. Modi will not remain for that event.<\/p>\n
While US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the SCO summit, telling Fox News it was \u201clargely performative,\u201d to other observers Xi has pulled off a meaningful shift in the balance of diplomatic power.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe SCO summit was a clear victory for China\u2019s world view,\u201d said Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst on the China and Northeast Asia team at Eurasia Group. \u201cMerging the SCO with China\u2019s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII \u2014 not to mention Beijing\u2019s airbrushed interpretation of the war \u2014 shows how much China\u2019s talking points were adopted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SCO\u2019s embrace of Beijing\u2019s position on global security issues shows Xi\u2019s growing sway, he added, noting the group\u2019s joint statement omitted any mention of Ukraine, while condemning attacks by the US and Israel against Iran.<\/p>\n
Here are the key takeaways from the Xi-Modi bilateral meeting.Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
The SCO has traditionally been hampered by rivalries between members such as India and Pakistan, as well as its narrow security focus, which has offered little in the way of material support. The organization has failed to provide meaningful help during crises, including recent attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
Similarly, talk of establishing a BRICS currency has failed to get off the ground and attracted the ire of Trump, who threatened tariffs if such a development got underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week is a diplomatic triumph for Beijing but China is still years or decades away from neutralizing US power in global finance, security and technology,\u201d said Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese Politics at Asia Society Policy Institute\u2019s Center for China Analysis. Beijing \u201cstill can\u2019t offer the type of security guarantees and open economic architectures provided by the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s China-chaired activities addressed some concerns. Xi announced a streamlined structure, merging observer and dialogue partner categories into a single \u201cpartner\u201d designation to potentially improve decision-making. More substantively, members agreed to establish an SCO Development Bank, a concept discussed for years but only now approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina is using the bank as a mechanism to cohere a geopolitical grouping, as we\u2019ve seen it do before with the New Development Bank for the BRICS,\u201d said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics, adding that it could prove to be substantive. \u201cThere\u2019s no contradiction to view it as both a geopolitical tool and an institution that could deliver real benefits to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xi, Modi and Putin huddle ahead of a group photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting.Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
Xi outlined other proposals to boost the economic support of members, including increased investments, loans to partners and grants to member states.<\/p>\n
China also unveiled a decision this week to test visa-free entry for Russian citizens, rolling out a program to its \u201cno limits\u201d partner that had for months \u2014 and in some cases years \u2014 been available to an array of European and other nations.<\/p>\n
While the Trump administration has touted Russia and China as natural enemies, the reality is that at a time of conflict with the US they need each other, according to Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cXi Jinping is in the driving seat,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd asymmetry where China can cherry pick what it wants in the partnership and set the conditions is very much on display.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping during the SCO summit, in this photo supplied by Russian state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[550,7904,28,144,12,81247,101,5,79355,81246,6508,6132],"class_list":{"0":"post-127530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-bloomberg","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-east-china-normal-university","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-narendra-modi","16":"tag-sco-summit","17":"tag-shanghai-cooperation-organization","18":"tag-vladimir-putin","19":"tag-xi-jinping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}