The Four Horsemen of the New World Order
A week of authoritarian pageantry in China, troubled U.S.-China trade war pause, heart drugs, hit animated film, brain-computer interface plans, Zambian Jehovah’s Witnesses, and more.
This is The China Week, an all-killer-no-filler analysis of news from the People’s Republic. Please take out a paying subscription to receive all full newsletters and access to the archive.
SCO summit and a massive military parade
A show of diplomatic power and military might
China and its leader Xi Jinping put on an extraordinary display of diplomatic and military might during the last five days.
One could argue that nothing of substance was achieved, but there is plenty of talk of a new world order in global press coverage of the events in Beijing. The week’s event were a resounding success at signaling that China’s is powerful and technologically advanced.
In China itself, many people just feel proud of the country’s military, technological, and economic rise, judging by social media comments, and by reported anecdotes, although of course critical voices are suppressed.
This is what you need to know:
Leaders of 20 countries attend SCO Summit
From August 31 to September 1 the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its biggest summit since its establishment in 2001. Leaders of 23 countries attended the meeting in Beijing’s neighbor city of Tianjin,
The SCO is a security and political grouping. The founding members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There are now 10 member states, 17 “partners,” and 4 “guest attendees” including the United Nations.
The summit concluded with a declaration, although no binding agreements. But everything was about the optics, especially for Xi and his two most important guests, Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi.
Xi enjoyed showing China’s convening power, great enough that it could bring together Armenia and Azerbaijan—whose leaders signed a peace deal at the White House on August 8, and Pakistan and India—which had a brief war in May 2025 that may be connected with Trump’s tariffs on India and Modi’s warmth to Xi.
Putin’s appearance lent him legitimacy on the global stage, and assured him that his two biggest customers would continue buying fossil fuels—on September 2, Moscow and Beijing agreed to build Power of Siberia 2, “a long-delayed pipeline to supply Russian gas to China.”
Modi’s on camera bonhomie with Xi and Putin was interpreted by many commentators as intended to show that India has other options if Donald Trump persists in the hostility epitomized by his 50% tariffs on Indian goods.
However, Manoj Kewalramani, an Indian scholar who writes the Tracking People’s Daily newsletter dissents, arguing that Modi’s intention was not to signal anything to Trump but to put a floor “under what is a contentious relationship with a testy and powerful neighbor.” (See also from Kewalramani: Outcomes from Xi's bilateral meetings in Tianjin and Analysis of the Modi-Xi meeting in Tianjin, and from the Sinification newsletter: Liu Zongyi: India’s disruptive role threatens the SCO’s future )
A display of military might in Beijing
On September 3, Xi Jinping presided over a military parade to commemorate the “80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” as Chinese state media call it.
State broadcaster CCTV and its English channel CGTN began live coverage of leaders from 20 countries walking on a red carpet to greet Xi and his wife Péng Lìyuàn 彭丽媛 before entering the Tiananmen rostrum from where they watched the parade. The guests included Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, both of whom stayed close to Xi for most of the duration of the live broadcast. Other guests were leaders from mostly Asian and former Soviet states, but also Cuba, Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe. Pakistan's Prime Minister was there, but not his Indian counterpart.
Highlights:
Xi and Putin on living forever: The live broadcast included a hot mic recording in which Xi says medical technology may extend lifespans to 150 years, and Putin claims that science is on the verge of achieving immortality through repeated organ transplants.
Advanced military tech: The parade itself featured a huge range of hardware, including China’s full nuclear triad (i.e. land-, sea-, and air-launched missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons), aerial and underwater drones, anti-drone weapons, laser weapons, hypersonic missiles, and J-15 fighter jets used on China’s aircraft carriers.
Parade porn: You can watch most of the parade on CGTN’s Youtube channel; they deleted all the footage of the guests arriving which contained the Xi Putin chat about longevity (and no doubt several people have lost their jobs because of it) but it is preserved on Bluesky and we have screenshots from the livestream on The China Week).
CGTN also has a clip of Xi Jinping being driven around in his chairman-mobile to review the troops (video here, and AP has a photo gallery
Xi and Kim vow to deepen cooperation
Kim Jong Un stayed in Beijing after the parade, and on September 4, had a meeting with Xi Jinping, followed by a banquet. “Beijing and Pyongyang should deepen strategic coordination in regional and international affairs to safeguard ‘mutual interests,’ Xi said [during] his first sit-down with [Kim] in six years,” reported the South China Morning Post.
Trade skirmish breaks out after truce extension
Troubled U.S.-China trade war pause
On August 28, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced a 90-day extension on a huge range of product exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. China is pausing reciprocal tariffs for the same period.
But on September 3, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Guangzhou Tengyue, which it said is “a chemical company operating in China that is involved in the manufacture and sale of synthetic opioids to Americans.
Hours later, China imposed a 38% anti-dumping duty on Corning and other U.S. optic fiber makers.
Other China news worth knowing from the last week
Hearts drugs, hit films and more
Also on our radar this week:
Novartis buys heart drug rights from Chinese firm
“Novartis is buying the rights to potential cardiovascular medicines from a Chinese biotech in a deal worth up to $5.2bn, as big pharmaceutical companies become increasingly reliant on Chinese innovation to replenish their drug pipelines,” reported the Financial Times.
Nobody, a new hit animated movie
The animated film Nobody (浪浪山小妖怪 lànglàng shān xiǎo yāoguài) “is a huge hit in China that has made over a billion yuan at the box office,” according to the South China Morning Post. It is based on the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West, better known to most Westerners as the story of the Monkey King, but the tale is told from the point of view of four demons, usually minor characters, rather than the Monkey King himself.
See also this People’s Daily timeline of the history of China's animation industry.
New public opinion survey
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Carter Center have released the results of a rare recent public opinion survey in China. Perhaps the most notable finding is that the Chinese public is “divided on whether Beijing should seek shared leadership or global dominance.”
Brain-computer interface plans
“A new policy document outlines China’s plan to create an internationally competitive BCI industry within five years, and proposes developing devices for both health and consumer uses,” according to Wired.
Zambian Jehovah’s Witnesses learning Chinese
Members of the Jehovah’s Witness religion in Zambia are learning Mandarin in order to convert Chinese migrants. “If measured by conversion rates,” these attempts have been unsuccessful, according to anthropologist Justin Lee Haruyama, but the Chinese migrants he spoke to “were grateful to have an opportunity to socialize with and befriend local Zambians in what felt like a safe space.”
Toilet culture
Chinese Doom Scroll has an explainer of Chinese video “about the history of public bathrooms”
Current food delivery model in China unsustainable
According to a report from a state-affiliated research organization, China’s app-based food delivery industry has only about “a decade of life left,” because of labor shortages, climate change causing weather that obstructs deliveries, and rising costs. Yuzhe He explains the reports findings.