Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a veiled swipe at the United States on Monday as he criticized “bullying practices” and cast his country as a new leader of world governance, at a time when President Donald Trump’s America First foreign policy is upending the globe. “The house rules of a few countries should not be imposed on others,” Xi told more than 20 world leaders gathering at 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.
The meeting of the Beijing- and Moscow- backed Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the northern port city of Tianjin is China’s biggest diplomatic event of the year, drawing political heavyweights including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
At the summit, Xi 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. “We should leverage the strength of our mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states and improve trade and investment facilitation,” the Chinese leader told his guests during opening remarks.
Later in the day, Xi unveiled a brand new Global Governance Initiative, a sequel to his three earlier “initiatives” on security, development and civilization that together serve as a loose outline for his vision of a reshaped international order. “I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system,” Xi said, pledging to increase the representation and voice of developing countries and practice multilateralism – echoing longstanding calls from the Global South. (Read More)