Xi and Putin stand shoulder to shoulder as China casts itself an alternative global leader Simone McCarthy, Nectar Gan, Rhea Mogul, CNNSeptember 1, 2025 at 3:19 AM Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a welcoming ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Su...
- - Xi and Putin stand shoulder to shoulder as China casts itself an alternative global leader
Simone McCarthy, Nectar Gan, Rhea Mogul, CNNSeptember 1, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a welcoming ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China on August 31, 2025. - Sergei Bobylyov/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has cast his country as a force for global economic stability and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support its partners, at a time when President Donald Trump wages a global tariff war and has decimated foreign aid under his "America First" policy.
Xi's comments came during an address on Monday that is the centerpiece of a two-day summit orchestrated to play-up China's global leadership and its close and enduring partnership with Russia, as the two neighbors seek to rebalance global power in their favor at the expense of the US and its allies.
"We should leverage the strength of our mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states and improve trade and investment facilitation," Xi told world leaders gathering in the Chinese port city of Tianjin for a summit of the Beijing- and Moscow-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The Chinese leader pledged 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states this year, and an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) of loans to a SCO banking consortium. He also called for an SCO Development Bank to be set up as soon as possible to underpin security and economic cooperation among the bloc.
Without naming the United States, Xi vowed to oppose "hegemonism," "Cold War mentality" and "bullying practices" in an address to political heavyweights from across the world, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Those phrases are often deployed by Xi to criticize what he sees as a world order dominated by the US and its Western allies. As Trump alarms nations with his global trade war, withdrawals from international organizations, slashing of foreign aid and threats on social media, Beijing views the US as undermining the international order it worked to build – and sees an opportunity to ramp its own vision as an alternative.
"We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar of the world, and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization and make the global governance system more just and equitable," Xi said.
Echoing Xi's remarks, Putin called for the SCO to form a "new system" of security in Eurasia, positioning it as an alternative to Western-led alliances that he has long railed against.
Speaking at the summit in Tianjin, Putin said the group could create "a system that would replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, taking into account the interests of the broadest possible range of countries."
Close rapport
The summit is a showcase for closer ties between China and Russia, as well as the friendship struck up over the years by their two autocratic leaders.
The deep personal rapport between the two men was on show Sunday evening, when Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a welcome banquet for attending leaders.
Footage released by Russian state news agency RIA showed Xi and Putin gesturing animatedly and smiling as they chatted at the event, showing a different side of the typically restrained Chinese leader – and his warm and relaxed demeanor with his Russian counterpart.
The pair then walked shoulder to shoulder together after posing for a photo alongside other gathered leaders, with Xi gesturing for Putin to walk with him past the others, footage released by the Kremlin showed.
The SCO summit is also the leaders' first opportunity to meet since Putin's summit with Trump in Alaska earlier this month – and comes as Putin resists Western pressure to end his onslaught in Ukraine.
Just last week, Moscow's forces carried out their second largest aerial attack to date on Ukraine.
On Monday, Putin used his speech at the SCO summit to reiterate his talking points on the war in Ukraine, saying the crisis "did not arise as a result of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, but rather as a consequence of a coup d'état in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West."
Moscow launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after Russia's troops previously seized the Crimea and swathes of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian leader praised efforts by China and India at facilitating the resolution of the crisis, and described the "understanding" reached with Trump at the Alaska meeting as "opening the way to peace in Ukraine."
"During the bilateral meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow, I will, of course, inform my colleagues in more detail and thoroughly about the results of the negotiations in Alaska," Putin said, adding that he had already informed Xi "in detail" during a lunch on Sunday.
China has emerged as a key pillar of diplomatic and economic support for Putin's regime since the early days of the Ukraine invasion, even as it claims neutrality in the conflict.
Chinese firms have bought up swaths of discounted Russian oil and provided it with critical trade, including dual use goods that Western leaders say have powered Russia's defense industrial base. Beijing defends its "normal trade" with Russia.
Trump earlier this summer threatened to take aim at that partnership, saying China could face major tariffs on its goods if it continued to purchase fuel from Russia as it wages war.
But even as the US imposed such penalties on India last week, it has so far slow-rolled that threat as it seeks a broader trade agreement with Beijing.
Trump's whopping 50% tariff on India has soured ties with Modi – and accelerated a nascent and cautious rapprochement between New Delhi and Beijing.
The Indian leader met with Xi on Sunday in his first trip to China in seven years, as both countries face stiff US tariffs and Western scrutiny over their relationships with Russia.
On Monday, Modi highlighted his ties with both his host and the Russian leader at the SCO summit, embracing Putin before the two walked over hand in hand to greet Xi. The three leaders then shared a conversation marked by smiles and laughter.
Observers say that Xi sees the gathering – and a massive military parade that he'll host on Wednesday in Beijing, expected to be attended by Putin, North Korea's Kim Jong Un as well as some two dozen other leaders – as a critically timed diplomatic push.
Chinese officials touted this year's SCO as the largest yet, saying ahead of the event that 20 leaders from across Asia and the Middle East would join. In addition to Russia, China and India, SCO members include Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
CNN's Darya Tarasova contributed reporting.
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