Xi and Putin stand shoulder to shoulder as China casts itself as an alternative global leader

     Tianjin, China 

By MorufAkanbi oloyede Sulaimon 

 — 

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 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 to set up a SCO Development Bank to provide “stronger underpinnings” for 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 led by the US and its Western allies.