ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes a framework for empirically analysing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) process, with special reference to China's role. The SCO is an organisation that addresses many factors such as regional stability, anti-radicalism, energy security and anti-foreign influence. The trend of Chinese involvement in multilateral diplomacy is indicated nowhere more obviously than by China's role in the SCO. It is widely acknowledged that China was the 'major impetus' behind the formation of the SCO as multilateral security cooperation in Central Asia. The SCO is therefore officially defined as a regional organisation for non-traditional security. Traditionally, China was more awkward in exercising entrepreneurial leadership in international relations although it was active in developing relations with the third world countries in the Cold War time. China's Central Asian policy in general and its involvement in the SCO process are formulated in accordance with its overall foreign policy planning and strategic orientation.
