Senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins discusses a historic week in China – including a 20-plus country summit and an unprecedented military parade – and analyses what it tells us about the country’s attempt to remake the world
It has been a historic week of diplomacy in China.
As senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins explains, it started on Sunday, with more than 20 heads of state attending the opening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Among them were strongmen from across Europe and Asia: presidents Putin of Russia, Erdoğan of Turkey, Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Lukashenko of Belarus and many others.
Yet it was not just an array of autocrats – India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, also came to the summit, openly warm to both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. It was not only, as Nosheen Iqbal hears, a significant show of support for China and its standing in the world – it also seemed a rebuke to the US and its allies.
That was only the beginning. On Wednesday, dozens of leaders stayed in China – joined by North Korea’s Kim Jong-un – to watch an enormous military parade in Beijing.
