preface
On July 2-6, the 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO member states will begin, and before that, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that "there is no doubt that Belarus will officially join the SCO." Belarus has already submitted several applications to join the SCO, and if it succeeds in joining the SCO, the SCO will have its tenth membership.
The SCO, whose full name is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, has been officially established for more than 20 years since 2001, but it has always seemed to be obscure in the international news.
In fact, the SCO has come a long and difficult way from its inception to its establishment and its emergence as the largest regional organization, and in its changes, we can clearly see the difficulties of surviving in the cracks on the continent and the changes in the form of global diplomacy in those years.
SCO
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
To talk about this Shanghai Cooperation Organization, it was first proposed by the President of Kazakhstan. At that point in time, everyone also knew that shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the entire Central Asian region was in chaos, and China had been discussing border issues with the Soviet Union before, but as a result, it was up to a large number of countries to discuss issues, and the complicated mood can be imagined.
But the chaos was not an option, so Kazakhstan took the lead, and in 1996, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan held their first meeting in Shanghai.
Kazakhstan is happy to see that things are done, and then several stans and Russia continue to be chaotic, and the previous article here also mentioned the problem of civil war in several stans, and almost all countries have to go through such a situation when they have just become independent, so we will not go into too much detail here.
Tossed until the millennium, China and Russia finally barely reached a temporary agreement on the border issue, and then look at the few stans, the civil strife is still not over, but has become more chaotic, coupled with the chaos in the Middle East has led to terrorist organizations rampant, the city gate fire is always worried about burning to themselves, and the group chat that has been silent for several years finally became lively.
In addition to counter-terrorism, Russia also hopes that these small Central Asian countries will not be fooled by the West. In 2001, Uzbekistan joined the SCO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was formally established, and the theme of combating terrorism, extremism, and separatist forces, maintaining regional stability, and opposing hegemonism was confirmed.
Not long after its establishment, the United States began to fight terrorism, but as we all know, the more the United States fights terrorism, the more anti-terrorism becomes, the more fearful, until 2005, seeing that the people of the US military are running around with their heads in their hands, where the US military goes, where the general environment is not good, they have completely become people who destroy the general environment! So do you think that we have to condemn the United States in accordance with the organizational philosophy? As soon as I heard that some organizations dared to compare with the United States, Iran, Pakistan and India came to Shanghai to participate in the grand event, saying that although we don't deal with each other, whoever wants to engage the United States, our brothers will definitely help!
In 2010, a coup d'état broke out in Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, which was next to him, was also in chaos, and the two small countries could not hold it at all, so the SCO came to help, and the functions of the organization were also updated, and cooperation was expanded to all aspects of economy, diplomacy and trade.
There is an old Chinese saying that "no one asks about the poor in the downtown area, and the rich have distant relatives in the mountains", when the Shanghai Five countries were first organized, China was selling their lives for propaganda, hoping that everyone could take a look at it when they passed by, but few people paid attention to it, and even the people within the organization did not care very much; As China's international status rises, even India, like India, said in May 2017 that "even if India jumps from here and dies, it will not join the 'Belt and Road'"! Then, in June, it said "true fragrance" and joined the SCO with Pakistan. It can only be said that it is really a compliment.
By 2021, the nine full-fledged member states alone were more than 65% of the size of Eurasia, making it already the largest regional organization in the world, and after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar also became dialogue partners.
The size of the SCO can be called "huge" today, coupled with the relations between the various countries in it, many foreign media say that it is an "anti-American organization", but the SCO is different from NATO, it is not a military organization, and it emphasizes non-alignment and peace, so many people think that the SCO is useless.
But an organization should not only look at what it does, but also what other countries have to do about it.
American
U.S. meddling
When it comes to the SCO, there is one more country that cannot be avoided - the United States.
On September 11, 2001, the famous 911 incident broke out, and since then the United States has entered an endless war on terror.
The United States wanted to overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, so it began to engage with Central Asia, wanting military access in those places. At that time, Russia was still very pro-Western and almost immediately agreed.
It is in Russia's interest to do so, but it is a heavy blow to the SCO. It's been two days since the establishment of the SCO, and the slogan of maintaining regional peace has just been put out, but Russia, the original member state, has sold all Central Asia with a big wave of your hand? Worse still, it has wreaked havoc on the entire credibility of the SCO.
This move of the United States is actually very insidious, and China was weak at that time, so it could only put 200% of its efforts into fighting.
Even though the United States has already sent troops to Central Asia, China still insists on conducting joint military exercises with Russia and Central Asian countries, and at the same time conducts energy trade with Central Asia, which is used to make up for the losses caused by the United States and then feeds dividends to Central Asia.
Having money and peace is undoubtedly a greater temptation for the countries of Central Asia than the profits of war.
Finally, in 2005, the SCO member states began to demand that the US military withdraw from Central Asia, and the United States spent all kinds of money to carry out color revolution infiltration, but it was either rejected or failed, and Kyrgyzstan, the only coup that succeeded, was too chaotic after the coup, and the United States did not find the space to intervene.
At that time, relations between Russia and the United States were about to reach the bottom, and in the face of Central Asia, which did not welcome him at all, the United States had no choice but to return home in a huff without getting much benefit.
Since the success of the SCO in fighting the US division of the region, which has led to the belief in the peace and desire of the SCO throughout Central Asia, more and more countries have been willing to engage with the SCO.
A new future
As you can see from the above, the SCO has been operating to maintain peace in the region from the very beginning, and as long as there is no conflict for a long time, many of these countries are only asking for peace of mind without interfering with their own lives, so it is difficult to cooperate at all.
Later, the United States began to stir up the world, and the SCO, as a state mainly led by China, named after Chinese cities and whose official languages are Chinese and Russian, and there is no English, as the second-in-command of the organization, Russia does not want to become a dominant family internally, as a balance, and then India and Pakistan have joined in. As you know, India is a good hand at sabotage, and with India, a lot of cooperation has become slower, so it doesn't seem like much has been achieved.
But that's what the SCO is all about.
It has made all kinds of contradictions and disputes in the Asia-Pacific region show themselves on the economic level, instead of a hot war, and China's current diplomatic strategy has been completely changed, and all kinds of countries that accept and oppose Western hegemony, maybe one country does not deal with China in other aspects, but as long as they all want to oppose hegemony, then they can sit down and talk. Either my enemy or my friend, the contradiction is not irreconcilable.
At the same time, the SCO also gives small countries that resist Western dominance in the world a place to speak out and hold together. As long as the SCO can continue to expand as it exists, it means that US hegemony is weakening, and as long as the SCO exists as long as this anti-hegemonic organization exists, it will be a blow to US hegemony.
Not only that, almost all the member states, observer countries, and dialogue partners of the SCO are located on the "Belt and Road", and Central Asia is the core area of the "Silk Road Economic Belt", and the SCO has prevented the division of China and Russia, and also intercepted the sabotage and infiltration of the United States in Central Asia.
Now that the SCO has military capabilities, it is not an exaggeration to say that it has become an important organization in the global fight against hegemony, or a leading leader.
If it weren't for China's insistence, Russia might have collapsed, and now China will face a more complicated regional situation.
But the U.S. plan did not succeed, and now the Central Asian region is united, China and Russia are fully united, and the SCO has moved beyond Central Asia and even begun to spread its influence to the Middle East.
The SCO will provide a new direction and choice for a growing number of countries that are not accustomed to the hegemony of the United States and the West.
American hegemony
end
Over the years, not only China, but also the United States has been carrying out NATO globalization, and now China's size is no longer able to maintain its glory, and the two sides are almost competing on the surface.
Since the United States wants to expand, China must also expand its circle of friends in order to form a confrontational trend.
At one time, the United States wanted to join the SCO to divide itself, but failed, and in the face of Central Asia, which has long been united, the United States could not find a chance.
There are always people who say that the SCO looks useless, just as there have always been people who smear the Belt and Road Initiative in the past, until the United States now jumps up and down in hopes of undermining the Belt and Road Initiative, that it has begun to shake the foundations of American hegemony.
If we start to see the name of the SCO in the news more frequently, it will show that the flame of gunpowder has already burned to the surface.