Chinese President, Xi Jinping has called for “equal and orderly multipolarisation” of the world, urging the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to work towards the creation of a “more just and equitable global governance system.”
In a speech to attendees of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit today, Monday, September 1, 2025, Xi urged regional leaders to oppose “Cold War mentality.”
Xi said that member states are facing increasingly complicated security and development challenges as the world becomes “chaotic and intertwined.”
“Looking back, despite tumultuous times, we have achieved success by practising the Shanghai spirit
“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit, keep our feet on the ground, forge ahead, and better perform the functions of the organisation.”
Xi Jinping
Xi also said states should “oppose bloc-based confrontation and bullying, and safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core.”
The Chinese leader announced that Beijing would provide 2 billion yuan ($280m) in aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan ($1.4bn) of loans to an SCO banking consortium. “We must take advantage of the mega-scale market… to improve the level of trade and investment facilitation,” Xi said.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are among the more than 20 world readers attending the two-day SCO summit, which opened on Sunday, August 31, 2025, in China’s northern city of Tianjin.
On Sunday, Xi met with Modi where they vowed to resolve their differences about the border dispute, which had led to a freeze in relations in 2020. The disputes revolve around three points in their vast border in India’s northern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh regions as well as near Bhutan.
Putin spoke to Xi on Sunday, ahead of the bilateral talks the two were scheduled to hold Tuesday, where he updated him about the Russia-US talks on the Ukraine war in Alaska last month.
Xi Seeks To Provide Alternate World Order
Analysts say that China intends to use the gathering to promote an alternative to the United States-led global order and repair ties with India amid a shifting geopolitical environment under US President Donald Trump.
Alfred Wu, a Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, opined that Xi wants to provide an alternate world order, “because the US led-world order is very much in decline,” adding, “This is the main narrative.”
Xi’s messaging did not stray far from China’s past comments, as opposition to a Cold War mentality is a reference to the U.S.’ opposition of China, as well as its withdrawal of funding from some U.N. agencies. “But at this moment in time, its consistency is the message,” Wu said.
While China is eager for the SCO to take a growing role on the global stage, it remains to be seen how effective the organization will be.
Its focus in the past has always been on propping up the security initiatives of its member states, including China which said the SCO was effective in combating what it refers to as the three forces: terrorism, separatism and extremism.
Those threats are what Beijing cited after it swept more than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs and members of other largely Muslim minorities into camps, prisons, and other detention facilities in 2018.
Derek Grossman, a Professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, noted, “Their anti-terrorism exercises are more about countering threats to authoritarian regimes rather than countering terrorism in its own right.”
“There’s competing organizations. If anything, BRICS might have much more luck in competing against the West because there are major economies involved.”
Derek Grossman
Even if the SCO summit’s reach and influence is ultimately limited, one thing is clear, he said, “China is on a diplomatic uptick and the US is self destructing.”
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