At the 19th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in June 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China would be setting up an SCO demonstration base in Shaanxi Province for exchange and training on agricultural technologies to strengthen cooperation on modern agriculture with other countries in the region. The Council of Heads of State is the Eurasian political, economic and security organization’s supreme decision-making body.
Later that same year, the demonstration base was established in Yangling, an agricultural hi-tech industrial demonstration zone in Shaanxi.
“The SCO Demonstration Base for Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training has evolved into an important platform for agricultural exchange and cooperation within the SCO,” Wu Wengang, Vice Governor of Shaanxi, said at a news briefing in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on August 30. This year, Tianjin hosted the largest-ever SCO Summit in its 24-year history from August 31 to September 1, gathering the leaders of more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations to build closer regional cooperation on security, sustainability and trade.
More than 80 training sessions have so far been held in Yangling, sharing agricultural knowledge and techniques with over 2,700 officials and professionals from SCO countries and countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Wu said, adding that over 50 online lectures have been conducted for SCO countries, attracting 51,000 participants. The China-proposed BRI aims to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes.
According to Wu, Shaanxi’s agricultural trade with SCO countries has grown rapidly, with import and export volume rising from 640 million yuan ($89.6 million) in 2021 to 2.14 billion yuan ($300 million) in 2024—an increase of more than 230 percent.
“China always aligns its development with that of the SCO and with the aspiration of the people of member states for a better life,” Xi said when addressing the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in Tianjin on September 1.
Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO has expanded from six founding members into the world’s largest regional organization, with the participation of 27 countries spanning Asia, Europe and Africa, cooperation in more than 50 areas and a combined economic output of nearly $30 trillion. Laos was accepted as a partner at the Tianjin summit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, pose for a group photo with international guests attending the SCO Summit 2025 before a welcome banquet at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin on August 31 (XINHUA)
More real actions
Xi called on SCO member states to stay true to the organization’s founding mission, and to promote its sound and sustained development with greater resolve and more practical measures.
Xi also proposed that SCO member states should seek common ground while putting aside differences, pursue mutual benefit and win-win results, champion openness and inclusiveness, uphold fairness and justice, and strive for real results and high efficiency.
He called for enhancing cooperation in areas such as energy, infrastructure, green industry, the digital economy, sci-tech innovation and AI, and establishing an SCO development bank as soon as possible.
To ensure real action is taken to better the development of the SCO, Xi announced that China will provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to other SCO member states this year, and issue an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years.
In addition, China plans to implement 100 “small and beautiful” livelihood projects in the member states that need them. Over the next five years, China will establish 10 Luban Workshops, which provide vocational education, in the countries and provide 10,000 human resources training opportunities.
Irfan Ashraf, a reporter with Pakistan’s Samaa TV, said China’s contributions through SCO projects are making positive impacts in host countries. “China is contributing in a good way in the education sector of Pakistan, especially for our youngsters. They are coming to China and getting education here. China has opened up its universities for Pakistani students. It’s really a very kind gesture and we respect it,” he told Beijing Review.
“It will help the country to reduce poverty and uplift the lives of common Pakistanis,” he added.
Reporters interview Pakistani students from the Luban Workshop at the Experience Center of Tianjin Light Industry Vocational Technical College in Tianjin on August 30 (XINHUA)
Strengthening economic ties
Xi said the member states should leverage the strengths of their mega-sized markets and their economic complementarity, and improve trade and investment facilitation.
The China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area, which was established in Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong Province, in 2018, has grown into a leading hub for international logistics, modern trade, two-way investment and cultural exchange.
At another SCO news briefing, held in Tianjin on August 29, Song Junji, Vice Governor of Shandong, said over the past six years, projects with a combined investment exceeding 150 billion yuan ($21 billion) have been launched in the demonstration area. Its trade with SCO countries has increased by an average of 56 percent annually, driving Shandong’s investment in SCO countries to grow by 38.3 percent on an average annual basis.
Today, China’s investment stock in other SCO member states has exceeded $84 billion, and its annual bilateral trade with other SCO member states has surpassed $500 billion.
“We are hoping for the trade cooperation between China and India to improve. And we’re also hoping that some of the border issues and the disputes will be resolved,” Rahul Shivshankar, the consulting editor with Indian omni-channel news network Network 18, told Beijing Review.
On August 31, Xi met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Tianjin for the SCO summit, agreeing that China and India are partners, not rivals.
“If the two countries can develop trust with each other, they can become very powerful players on the international stage,” Shivshankar said.
Reporters try their hand at making lacquer fans, a form of intangible cultural heritage, at the Media Center of the SCO Summit 2025 on August 31 (TAO XING)
Promoting global governance
Xi’s proposal of the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) was the biggest highlight of the Tianjin summit.
He proposed the initiative at the “SCO Plus” Meeting on September 1, calling on countries to work in concert for a more just and equitable global governance system.
The GGI is the fourth landmark global initiative proposed by Xi, following the Global Development Initiative in 2021, the Global Security Initiative in 2022 and the Global Civilizations Initiative in 2023.
Xi introduced the five principles of the GGI—adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centered approach, and focusing on taking real action.
While the historical trends of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit remain unchanged, the Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism continue to haunt the world, Xi said, adding that new threats and challenges have only been increasing, and the world finds itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation.
“Global governance has come to a new crossroads,” he said.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations. Xi emphasized the importance of firmly safeguarding the status and authority of the UN, and ensuring its irreplaceable, key role in global governance.
Xi called on the SCO to step up to play a leading role and set an example in carrying out the GGI, saying the group should contribute to safeguarding world peace and stability.
“We should continue to uphold the principles of non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party,” he added.
Emphasizing that the organization should take responsibility for open cooperation across the globe, Xi said, “We should continue to dismantle walls, not erect them; we should seek integration, not decoupling.”
Other participants in the meeting expressed strong support for the GGI, saying its proposal is both timely and necessary. They highlighted the need for a more effective governance philosophy and system as the world is confronted with widening deficits in governance, challenges to sustainable development and rising unilateralism.
SCO Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev said the fact that the GGI was put forward on the SCO platform carries profound symbolic significance.
“Indeed, the principles enshrined in the initiative are of paramount importance, with the people-centered approach standing out in particular. After all, as we all recognize, the initiative’s central purpose is to advance human development and improve people’s livelihoods,” he added.
A reporter at the Media Center of the SCO Summit 2025 on August 30 (XINHUA)
A growing platform
“The SCO, with its enormous economic, intellectual, resource and technological potential, is consistently expanding its influence on the international arena. This is particularly important in the current climate of global uncertainty,” President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO.
“We believe that the SCO’s voice should be even more compelling and resolute, reflecting our common political will and serving as a call for decisive action in the name of a peaceful future and sustainable progress,” he added.
A development strategy for the SCO in the 2026-35 period was approved at the Tianjin summit. It sets the tone and direction for the organization’s growth in the next decade, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when meeting the press together with Yermekbayev on September 1.
The summit also issued a statement defending the victorious outcomes of World War II.
Four new SCO centers were inaugurated at the event with respective tasks of countering security threats and challenges, tackling transnational organized crimes, improving information security and strengthening anti-drug cooperation.
“It is important for countries of the Global South to have a platform, where they can collectively raise their voice and send a message to other countries of the world, advanced economies of the world in the West,” Shivshankar said, commenting on the SCO’s role in global affairs. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review news exchange item
