‘Global South Is No Longer the Silent Majority,’ Says China in Preparing for the SCO

Sept. 1—Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei was asked to comment during his August 28 briefing on the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, about the fact that so many of the leaders he had just announced who will be attending the summit are from the Global South. Hong answered by pointing out that the “Global South” nations have become the primary force making history today; proving, he could have added, what an incompetent fool Henry Kissinger was with his dictum that “history is not made in the South.”

China’s victory over Japanese aggressionin World War II had inspired and given courage to “colonized and semi-colonized countries around the world that had suffered from aggression and oppression,” aiding their triumph in achieving national liberation, Hong replied, Global Times reported.

Now, “eighty years later, the era when a handful of countries dominated the destinies of others, monopolized international affairs and held exclusive advantages in development has become a thing of the past. The collective rise of the Global South is fundamentally reshaping the global landscape.” Together, they are contributing the largest share of economic growth globally.

“No longer the ‘silent majority’ or a ‘vast backward bloc,’ the Global South now represents an awakened new force and new source of hope in changes unseen in a century, Hong noted.”

A news item by China’s Xinhua news agency from the same day, "Carrying forward Shanghai Spirit with renewed vitality contrasting the principles upon which the SCO has been built since its founding in 2001 to those of the Western geopoliticians, as the basis for the SCO’s strength today.

The SCO, initiated by China, adheres to what they call “the Shanghai Spirit—a set of principles centered on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development.” When President Xi Jinping chaired SCO summit in 2018, he pointed out that “the Shanghai Spirit, transcending outdated concepts such as the clash of civilizations, Cold War mentality, and zero-sum mindset, has opened a new chapter in international relations and won growing recognition from the global community,” Xinhua noted.

Opposition to those outdated concepts has only strengthened since then. Addressing the SCO Foreign Ministers this past July, Xi reiterated: “We firmly oppose hegemonic, high-handed and bullying acts, and promote a more equal and balanced multipolar world.”