 "China’s President Xi Jinping (Centre) attends to a bilateral meeting with Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (not pictured), ahead of the SCO Summit 2025, in the Guest House of Tianjin, China, 30 August, 2025. (Photo: Andres Martinez Casares/Pool via Reuters)")
Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday took a swipe at US President Donald Trump and slammed “bullying” behaviour in the world order.
In his opening remarks at the SCO Summit’s plenary session, Xi said that the “the security and development tasks facing member states have become even more challenging” and slammed the “bullying behaviour” from certain countries in an apparent reference to the United States, according to AFP.
Xi further said that the global international situation was becoming more “chaotic and intertwined”.
“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit… and better perform the functions of the organisation,” Xi further said.
Xi is hosting biggest non-Western leaders at the SCO Summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Xi hails SCO’s principles
In his opening remarks at the plenary session of the SCO Summit, Xi hailed the principles of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Explaining the “Shanghai Spirit” driving the organisation, Xi said that it represented “mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilisations and pursuit of common development”.
Xi further said, “We were the first to set up a military confidence-building mechanism in our border areas, turning our extensive borders into a bond of friendship, mutual trust and cooperation. We were the first to take multilateral actions against the three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism. We steadily promoted law enforcement and security cooperation.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsChina has pitched SCO as an alternative to Western groupings like G-7. While China has tried to use the SCO and Brics as anti-Western blocs, India’s presence in these groups ensures that these groups remain non-Western but do not turn anti-Western.