XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, alt.politics.trump   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv   
   From: c186282dd@nnada.ne   
      
   Defying U.S. pressure, China’s Xi advances his vision for a new global   
   order   
      
   Chinese President Xi Jinping gives a speech on Monday during the Shanghai   
   Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, China.SUO TAKEKUMA/Reuters   
      
   As U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war continues to disrupt   
   international relations, Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday called for the   
   creation of a “more just and equitable global governance system.”   
      
   Mr. Xi was speaking at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,   
   or SCO, in Tianjin. Founded in 2001, the China-led SCO was initially   
   confined to Russia and four countries in Central Asia, but under Mr. Xi has   
   expanded to include India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus, as well as more than   
   a dozen observer states and “dialogue partners.”   
      
   Along with his signature Belt and Road Initiative and the expansion of   
   BRICS, the SCO has been a key plank in Mr. Xi’s ongoing efforts to upend   
   the post-World War II, Western-led global order, a plan that has been   
   supercharged by Mr. Trump’s alienation of many of Washington’s traditional   
   partners, even as the U.S. has sought to isolate China with the threat of   
   crippling tariffs.   
      
   No country exemplifies this shift more than India. The U.S. has   
   aggressively courted New Delhi under successive administrations, while   
   Sino-Indian relations were bruised by multiple border clashes and trade   
   disputes.   
      
   Opinion: Trump is putting the screws to India over Russian oil imports,   
   creating an opportunity for Canadian energy   
      
   India benefitted from a “friendshoring” drive which began during the height   
   of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Western brands sought a backup to   
   manufacturing in China, and was bolstered by the threat of U.S. tariffs on   
   Chinese imports.   
      
   While some Western countries – notably Canada – have been wary of Indian   
   Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive right-wing Hindu nationalism, he   
   was initially embraced by Mr. Trump, who hosted his “great friend” at a   
   raucous “Howdy Modi” celebration in Texas during his first term.   
      
   That friendship has unravelled since Mr. Trump’s return to office however,   
   as the two men reportedly soured on each other due to Mr. Trump’s claims to   
   have “solved” the longstanding India-Pakistan conflict, and Mr. Modi’s   
   refusal to stop buying cheap Russian oil. Last month, the U.S. slapped some   
   of its most stringent tariffs on Indian goods, though enforcement of these   
   measures has been thrown into doubt by a recent court verdict.   
      
   Beijing has not wasted the opening, sending top diplomat Wang Yi to India   
   to smooth over the border issue and create an opening for a meeting between   
   Mr. Xi and Mr. Modi in Tianjin, the Indian leader’s first visit to China in   
   seven years.   
      
   “The world today is swept by once-in-a-century transformations,” Mr. Xi   
   said Sunday as he welcomed Mr. Modi. “The international situation is both   
   fluid and chaotic.”   
      
   Mr. Modi – who also attended the SCO summit on Monday – said that “given   
   the uncertainties in the world economy, it is vital for India and China to   
   strengthen cooperation.”   
      
   Mr. Modi says New Delhi is committed to improving ties with China in a key   
   meeting with Mr. Xi on Sunday.   
      
      
      
   At Monday’s meeting, Mr. Xi called on SCO members to leverage their “mega-   
   scale market” to boost trade and investment, and promised to boost Chinese   
   aid and lending. As the “world’s largest regional organization,” the SCO’s   
   “international influence and appeal are increasing,” Mr. Xi added.   
      
   “We must uphold the international system with the United Nations at its   
   core and support the multilateral trading system with the World Trade   
   Organization at its core,” he said, urging members to avoid “Cold War   
   mentality, bloc confrontation, and bullying.”   
      
   As well as Mr. Modi, Mr. Xi held bilateral meetings with Turkish President   
   Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who said he briefed   
   his Chinese counterpart on the outcome of his recent summit with Mr. Trump   
   in Alaska.   
      
   “We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed   
   at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis,” Mr. Putin said   
   Monday. “The understandings reached at the recent Russia–U.S. meeting in   
   Alaska, I hope, also contribute toward this goal.”   
      
      
      
   He praised the SCO as having revived “genuine multilateralism” and laying   
   the “political and socio-economic groundwork for the formation of a new   
   system of stability and security in Eurasia.”   
      
   “This security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would   
   genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly   
   balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the   
   expense of others,” Mr. Putin said.   
      
   The Russian leader is staying in China until Wednesday, when he will attend   
   a large military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end   
   of World War II. He and Mr. Xi will be joined at that event by North Korean   
   dictator Kim Jong Un and 24 other foreign leaders in another show of   
   Chinese diplomatic clout.   
      
   With a report from Reuters   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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