Arran Hope
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an increasingly important vehicle through which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to drive changes to the international system. This year’s summit focused on seizing the current moment to shape rules and standards in emerging frontiers, such as artificial intelligence (AI), cyberspace, and outer space.
CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping used the summit to unveil the Global Governance Initiative—the fourth such initiative he has announced in recent years. While currently short on substance, it is symbolic as a statement of intent for shaping an international order in the Party’s own image.
The SCO claims that it is not an anti-Western organization that seeks reform, not revision, of the international system. The Tianjin Declaration’s explicit and implicit criticisms of the United States, as well as SCO member states’ ongoing violations of international law in ways that undermine the current system, suggests that such claims are largely rhetorical.
“Profound changes in international relations have taken place.” “In a spirit of partnership, the Parties shall strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order.” These are quotes not from last week, but from 1997. They can be found in the “Russian-Chinese Joint Declaration on a Multipolar World and the Establishment of a New International Order,” a foundational document of what later became the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (UN Digital Library, May 20, 1997). In the nearly three decades since, the leadership in both countries has remained remarkably consistent on this assessment, and in their commitment to bringing this new order into existence. By the time presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping arrived in the Kazakhstan for last year’s SCO summit, they felt comfortable declaring that the multipolar world “has become a reality” (Kremlin.ru, July 4, 2024).
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