Once a modest Central Asian security forum, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation now pits Beijing’s ambitions against Western dominance, with its August summit casting President Xi Jinping as a champion of a new multipolar order. But internal rifts raise doubts that it can rival NATO.
From a small-scale security-building mechanism to a heavyweight bloc showcasing China’s geopolitical ambitions, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has evolved dramatically since its inception in 1996.
