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US-China relations
Opinion
SCMP Editorial
Editorial
SCMP Editorial

China’s Xi sends a strong message before his US visit

Xi’s month of travel signals that China is playing a key role in South-South cooperation amid a tariff war and geopolitical instability

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan are welcomed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and his wife Entissar Amer upon their arrival at Cairo International Airport on September 1. Photo: Xinhua via AP
SCMP Editorial
Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.
President Xi Jinping has begun a month of travel expected to lead to the United States and a summit with President Donald Trump. That contrasts with the earlier part of the year which saw Xi hardly going anywhere but staying in Beijing. Instead, he hosted foreign leaders who flocked to meet him, including those of middle powers such as Britain, Germany, Canada and Spain, as they looked beyond an unpredictable American president and mixed signals from Washington.

This reflects the growing importance of China’s economic power, the potential of its vast market and latest technological advances. Now, ahead of his proposed visit to the US on September 24, Xi has launched a diplomatic offensive.

First he visited Kyrgyzstan for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, then – for the first time in 10 years – Egypt. This weekend he goes to India for the summit of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), an organisation now of 11 members designed to counterbalance Western-led global governance. China is sending a strong message that it is playing a key role in South-South cooperation amid a US-China tariff war and mounting geopolitical instability, as wars disrupt shipping routes, drive up energy prices and – together with extreme weather – deepen threats to global food security.

At the SCO summit, Xi said that the 10 member countries should “prioritise security” and prevent external interference in the affairs of other nations. He also announced initiatives including a new centre for international artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation. Xi said the Eurasian bloc should take on a bigger global role in technology and security. A key lesson from the bloc’s 25 years of cooperation was “finding the right way to coexist without alliance, confrontation or targeting any third party”.

“Its most significant achievement has been its steady growth into a new type of regional cooperation organisation that now spans the widest territory, encompasses the largest population and holds the greatest development potential in the world,” Xi said.

However, the world was at a crossroads, with rivalries between dialogue and confrontation, win-win cooperation and zero-sum competition, and multilateralism versus unilateralism. Xi said countries had to “prioritise security and create a universally secure environment”, and prevent external forces from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries to safeguard regional stability.

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