President Xi Jinping used a mix of friendliness and economic appeal this week to send a clear message to Donald Trump: Beijing has too much global influence for the US to dictate.

Cameras captured the Chinese leader in a rare, unscripted meeting on Monday with Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi – his strongest allies in countering America on the world stage – at a summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. At one point, Xi held hands with his Indian counterpart, while the three men shared a lighthearted laugh, a striking sight considering that just months earlier, New Delhi and Beijing were seen as rivals.

The images were a victory for Xi's political project to build an alternative to the US-led world order, where the dominance of the American dollar has given him global influence. Hours after the three men gathered at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization event, Beijing signed a major gas pipeline deal with Moscow – rebuking Trump's attempts to use tariffs to dissuade India and China from buying Russian energy.

"China has developed and sequenced its messages perfectly, and the picture of Xi, Putin, and Modi embracing each other is increasingly clear," said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations at Shanghai's East China Normal University. "This week will be remembered as the week the world fundamentally shifted."

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has methodically built blocs outside Washington's orbit of influence. While such groupings are often dismissed as mere talking points, Trump's trade war has given them new purpose.

Xi is dangling economic carrots to maximize cohesion. The SCO is being equipped with a new development bank, he announced as the group held its largest summit since its founding in 2001, without disclosing funding details. Meanwhile, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to convene an impromptu virtual meeting of BRICS leaders on Monday to discuss how to unite against Trump's trade policies, Bloomberg reported. (alg)

Source: Bloomberg