At SCO summit, Xi Jinping frames China as a source of certainty

As Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes a host of world leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, he is delivering one overarching message – that China is a stable power that will protect peace and champion the developing world.

Xi launched a flurry of Chinese diplomacy in the northern city of Tianjin on Saturday by meeting five state leaders and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ahead of Sunday’s start to the SCO’s two-day summit.

He told Guterres that China was a “source of stability and certainty” amid global changes and that “history teaches that multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation are the right way to address global challenges”.

Some 30 world leaders and heads of international organisations are expected to show up for the SCO summit – an event China’s foreign ministry is billing as the “largest in SCO history” and “one of the most important activities this year for China’s head-of-state diplomacy and home-ground diplomacy”.

Analysts said the world would be watching to see how Beijing tried to position itself as a global power at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.

In his welcome to Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday, the Chinese leader said the two countries should make “greater contributions to maintaining world peace and stability” and promote global development and prosperity.

South China Morning Post