SCO Summit in Tianjin: China assumes the role of architect of the multipolar world

The leaders of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met these days to lay the foundations of a multipolar world. At least that is what emerges from the text of the Declaration of the Tianjin Summit, a document in which the organization assumes the role of a "proactive force for peace and development", and to this end will establish a development bank, will provide grants for various public investments in transport infrastructure and in the development of trade.

In the cited document, the SCO secures its discourse with heavy phrases: "against hegemonism", "against the Cold War mentality", "for a just and equitable global governance".

Apparently, nothing new. In essence, everything has changed: these proposals no longer come from a political "outsider” with ambitions, but from a builder who has already poured the foundation: trade, railways, industrial parks from Minsk to Shenyang, contracts worth hundreds of millions in regional chains. The event in Tianjin these days demonstrated how China has managed to transform the SCO into the showcase of the future world order, an order that must be multipolar.

However, the multipolarity promised by the leaders of the 10 member states (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus) for the other 14 countries (among which are Armenia, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan) that are involved in the SCO as observers and dialogue partners, is based on the power of China, if we analyze yesterday's speech by President Xi Jinping. The data presented by the Chinese leader leaves no room for interpretation: the SCO has a cumulative Gross Domestic Product of almost 30 trillion dollars, 26 countries involved, over 50 areas of cooperation, 14,000 kilometers of international land routes, over 110,000 China-Europe Railway Express runs. Moreover, China has 500 billion dollars per year in bilateral trade with the SCO member states, in which it has also made investments exceeding 84 billion dollars. On top of all this, Xi Jinping also made firm promises: China will allocate 2 billion yuan in grants to the SCO member states this year and will lend 10 billion yuan to the member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years, at preferential interest rates.

We are basically talking about geopolitical accounting. Under this veil of figures, the message is simple: if the West preached universalism, China wants to deliver universality: roads, clearing banks, scholarships, doctorates, security centers, 100 "small and beautiful" projects for everyday life. And it wants to put its stamp: "SCO Development Bank", an instrument with which permanent, real financing of the objectives established by the member states can be achieved.

Xi Jinping's speech was also pigmented with a negative reference to US President Donald Trump, the Chinese leader criticizing the customs tariffs imposed by the head of the White House, tariffs that hit friends and adversaries alike, through "harassment" in the commercial order.

Xi Jinping hinted that, while Washington is erecting customs walls, Beijing is modernizing its bridges in the colors of "extended consultation and joint contribution". Xi Jinping's rhetoric was carefully calibrated: he did not promise revolution, but "equal and orderly multipolarization." He did not call for the destruction of any political system, but for reforms and "an inclusive globalization." But beneath this gentleness flows the cold current of realpolitik: China wants to be the pivot through which states dissatisfied with the Western double standard find their dignity and financing.

• Putin's message gains consistency through its support by China

Vladimir Putin completed the above picture yesterday in Tianjin. The Kremlin leader invoked the UN Charter, reiterated criticism of Ukraine and spoke about the need to build a new global balance. Putin welcomed the Chinese leader's initiative to establish the SCO development bank and create a common financial infrastructure for member states, recalling de-dollarization through bonds and national currencies.

"National currencies are increasingly used in mutual settlements between the SCO member states. Russia supports the issuance of common bonds of the member states, the creation of its own payment, settlement and storage infrastructure within the SCO, and the formation of a bank of joint investment projects. All this will increase the efficiency of our economic exchanges and protect them from fluctuations in the external environment," said Vladimir Putin. Basically, after President Trump brought Vladimir Putin out of diplomatic isolation at the summit in Alaska, now in Tianjin the Russian leader, although he repeated the messages of recent years, had a different resonance and it is possible that we will witness their materialization in a framework which is taking shape under the umbrella of China.

And this means something else: the SCO summit in Tianjin showed us that Russia is no longer a great power, but that its place, as the main opponent of the West, has been taken by China.

In this context, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stands on another axis, one of caution. India has recently felt the blow of American tariffs and the cold heat of Chinese competition, but in Tianjin he played his own card: development partnership with Beijing and support for the SCO declaration condemning terrorism "without double standards". India demands "zero tolerance". Pakistan is listening in the same room. Cynicism? No. Grammar of power in a political bloc that wants to define its own security lexicon.

When a collective statement says that "sovereign states” have the main role in combating extremism and that "double standards are inadmissible,” it not only denounces attacks, but also draws, subtly, the limit of external interference.

This is what the multipolarity that Xi Jinping calls "equal and orderly” looks like today: it does not resemble a revolution, but a change in political architecture, in which, as I mentioned above, China draws the plans: Belt and Road as material infrastructure, the SCO bank as a financial foundation, security centers as protection, the SCO university as a cultural bridge. It is a geopolitical urbanism in which every stake driven into the soil of Eurasia says: "Your selective order is over. Ours begins with utilities.”

• China's new network

And yet, beneath this political asphalt, the vibrations are contradictory: while Beijing preaches exchange between civilizations, its own security practice is being challenged for repression in Xinjiang; while proclaiming the rejection of blocs, he disciplinedly gathers his friends under the same umbrella. In the language of the markets, this is called "message discipline”. In moral language, it is called "legitimacy through results”.

The difference with the West is not that one has values and the other does not. The difference, today, is about credibility.

When the US and the EU preached freedom, but implemented sanctions with variable geometry and turned a blind eye to the slippages of their own proteges, they emptied the pulpit of its authority.

When Trump used tariffs as a universal club, he deepened the rift: the partners understood that moralism is negotiable, and "rules” are, in fact, weapons.

Xi Jinping does not need to convince that China is more just; he needs to demonstrate that it is more consistent in delivering "real results and high efficiency”. The Chinese leader closed his speech yesterday with a proverb: "Where the will rules, there is no border”. It is basically an offer made by China to the world, but one that includes an implicit condition: the recognition that the new center of political gravity is moving to Beijing.

Can the SCO become the institution that replaces the Western system? Not yet. But it can redefine the usefulness of geopolitics: less moralism, more provision of public goods. And where the West sold "values” and delivered "exceptions,” China sells "projects” and delivers roads. In this reputation economy, it is not the most virtuous who wins, but the most predictable. Xi Jinping knows this and says it in a low voice: "extended consultation, joint contribution, shared benefits.” Although they seem like simple diplomatic formulations, what the Chinese leader said is actually the manual for conquering the center of political power.

In these conditions, who can sanction abuse when the rules become negotiable? If the "block mentality” is outdated, but each one erects its own bastions, what is left of the idea of law?

The SCO responds with "sovereign state” and "non-interference” in internal affairs. The West responds with "human rights” and "responsibility to protect”. Between these two catechisms, the Global South counts its interests. Unfortunately, in Tianjin, the foundations of an alternative hegemony were not laid, but a network is being built. And networks are not conquered, they are maintained. China has recently checked its ties with the member states of the international organization, recalibrated the mechanism and lit a new bright sign: "SCO - open for mutually beneficial results”.

The West can ironize the slogan. Or it can repair and modernize its own value system.