ABSTRACT
The year 2021 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Cold War, and the twentieth since the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was set up. The SCO was the first international organization co-established and co-led (with Russia) by China. For years, the SCO had restricted membership and issue areas on which it worked – security in the first place, and economics in the second. As for China, it primarily served as a means to foster a congenial milieu for its foreign policy interests in Central Asia and beyond.
Around the mid-2010s, these conditions started to change. The SCO expanded its membership to include Pakistan and India, altering the organization’s earlier dual leadership. Meanwhile, China shifted its diplomatic energy to its newest megaproject – the BRI – as the main foreign policy framework. The present chapter looks at how China used the SCO in its foreign policy towards Central Asia in 2013–2021. First, it analyses Chinese foreign policy priorities in Central Asia. Then it looks at how the SCO evolved in 2013–2021. Finally, it scrutinises the role of the SCO in furthering China’s foreign policy interests in Central Asia after 2013.
The chapter argues that China’s use of the SCO in its policy towards Central Asia has become less prominent than before 2013, yet China has been using the organization more skilfully. While the SCO comes second to bilateralism and the BRI, China mastered how to use it to complement its primary foreign policy means. This chapter thus provides a contribution to the discussion on China’s foreign policy under Xi. It also complements the debate on changing roles of international institutions in China’s diplomacy.
