Despite China’s “zero Covid” policy blunderand continued barking dog rumors of decoupling coming from the U.S. and – most recently – Germany, China is marching ahead in conquering the Central Asia as one of its main investment outposts. 

Meanwhile, Europe can barely pay its electrical bills. 

By comparison, the U.S. is doing fine, barring its 40-year high inflation rate. But China, which purports to have just around 3% inflation, is not going quiet into the night in year four of the trade war. 

Recall that Washington’s plans to paint Beijing as some sort of Moscow-enabler failed miserably. Even Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (and plausible next president, for the third time), didn’t pick the West’s side when it came to Russia or Ukraine. Just as importantly, India, arguably the most important ally the U.S. has in the region, has not turned its back on Russia, nor China, despite being as aggressive (and in some cases more aggressive) towards China than we are. Remember, India banned China’s TikTok in 2020.

PROMOTED

And now the whole bunch of them are meeting up in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday and Friday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. The focus will be on Central Asian development, funded, in large part, by China — with mountains of dirt and earth moved by Chinese mining equipment, computer hardware to power the new tech economies made in China, and funding for railroads and highways and bridges mostly all from China. 

What is this summit all about?

The SCO summit includes China, India, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and all the ‘Stan countries, including event host, Uzbekistan. These countries account for half of the world’s population and at least 25% of world GDP. The war in Ukraine is unlikely to come up, though Uzbekistan president Shavkat Mirziyoyev mentioned that, and other impacts on the commodities trade in an op-ed published in numerous SCO member countries’ newspapers, like The Times of India, on September 12.