China's role as a catalyst for change in the Global South

THEY stood together side by side, in palpable solidarity and total unison, their tight pact too deep to penetrate and their joint mission impossible to scupper. These were the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea. Presidents Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

A day prior, Xi and Putin had been joined by their Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A magnet for Western interests, the Indian leader has taken umbrage with the Trump administration’s notorious tariffs on his country.

The fact that China, Russia and India are the mainstay of BRICS has further resulted in US President Donald Trump’s additional 15% tariffs, particularly for buying Russian oil when the West has attempted — and failed — to isolate Russia through an unprecedented barrage of economic sanctions since 2022 following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

All in all, activities in China this week reflected the rapidly shifting paradigm in the US-led Western-dominated international world order. The Global South, having endured the dominance of the West for the longest time, at least since the end of WWII in 1945, resembled a tiger finally reawakened through two major activities that bore international ramifications.

First was the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-Plus (SCO), held in Tianjin, and the second, a worldwide publicised rare military parade by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Beijing, where the country was marking the 80th anniversary of the spectacular defeat of the Japanese forces by the Soviet Red Army at the end of August in 1945. The period, September 3, also marks the day Japan surrendered in 1945, marking the official end of WWII.

Apart from their convergent philosophy of life and outlook of global affairs, the meetings in both Tianjin and in the Chinese capital, Beijing, this week of leading protagonists of the Majority World was as remarkable as it was historic. For the uninitiated, it was the first time the three leaders of China, Russia and North Korea were seen in public together, at the same time.

The symbolism of watching them intentionally thrash out a road map to the new world order that is currently undergoing reconfiguration was powerful beyond measure. No wonder some leading Western news outlets described the gathering in China this week as a meeting of autocrats.

In the midst of that predictable criticism, the West loses sight of the advent of its hegemony. Notably, China, Russia and India are drawing a new roadmap of international relations without making much noise about the West. At the SCO summit in Tianjin, one of the key considerations was to create a Bank similar to the BRICS Bank in order to reduce the dependence of Global South countries on Western lending institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank.

Of greater significance, as part of their 10-year strategic plan, SCO member-states will, just like BRICS, trade among each other using their national currencies. This means dropping the use of the US dollar in the trading system. In addition, Russia has also proposed a widely embraced establishment of the alternative payment system away from the Western-dominated SWIFT system.

By all accounts, the latest developments characterise the subtle implementation of “de-dollarisation” — the process of doing away with the US dollar — although China and the rest of the Global South are wary of publicly uttering the phrase for fear of reprisals.

The SCO summit further laid down the principles of an envisaged new world order that ought to be based on, among others, respect for sovereignty, opposition to unilateral imposition of sanctions as a tool of coercion, non-interference in internal affairs, and rejection of the use or threat of force.

The Global South world leaders who converged in Tianjin and Beijing share, among others, the experience of public rebuke, admonition and unilateral sanctions by the West. No wonder in China, talk was that of replacing the unipolar world order with multilateralism in accordance with the founding principles of the UN Charter.

The Global South leaders have spent too much time in constant battle to fight off isolation and punishment by the West. Their fear of being deposed is also real. Their form of governance is abominable in the eyes of the West, whose brand of democracy is the only choice on the table.

Furthermore, Global South leaders converged in Beijing to join in the pomp and ceremony of Victory Day, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of imperial Japan in WWII in 1945. The People’s Republic of China has since then never looked back. The nation of some 1.4 billion people has risen in leaps and bounds, rising to become the world’s second-biggest economy after the US. China has also taken out of poverty more than 800 million of its citizens through aggressive anti-poverty programmes within a period of 10 years.

In the same week of China’s very public display of the country’s military arsenal, Xi also welcomed no less than 26 world leaders who had attended either the SCO in Tianjin or the military parade in Beijing, or both — as was the case with Putin. It was a display of the Global South solidarity. In the rapidly changing international world order, China has positioned itself as the strategic leader of the Majority World.

Beijing has taken it upon itself to mobilise the entire Global South through geopolitical and economic cooperation based on the principles of shared future through shared prosperity, as well as non-interference in the domestic affairs of others.

Methinks one of the major outcomes of especially of the SCO, was Xi’s widely accepted proposal of a “Global Governance Initiative” (GGI) in the Shanghai spirit.

The SCO is far from a military bloc and does not seek confrontation with the West or anyone. Instead, the SCO is a vehicle aimed at assisting in the building of a multipolar world order where all nations will be treated and feel equal before international law.

Putin, who spent four consecutive days in a state visit to China and held a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO and Victory Day parade, endorsed Xi’s GGI without hesitation.

He said the SCO could, in fact, become a catalyst in the formation and implementation of the new Global Governance Initiative.

He explained: “Such a system would be genuinely balanced, reflect the interests of a broad range of countries, and create opportunities for the advancement of international law and relations, as well as for sustainable development and security.”

There are various ways through which events in China this week could be interpreted. However, irrespective of one’s school of thought, there is evidently one thing abundantly clear: China is not only a superpower of the 21st century, but it is also a catalyst in the reawakening of the Global South as a significant role player in international affairs.

* Abbey Makoe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views expressed are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.

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