Chinese leader Xi Jinping used the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Tuesday to push China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), even as the region grapples with mounting discontent over the program’s debt burdens, environmental toll, and sovereignty implications.
“China takes the SCO as a priority area for promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and implementing the Global Development Initiative,” Xi told the forum, according to remarks reported by Breitbart News.
The Chinese leader pledged new green-energy and technology initiatives, including an “international AI application cooperation center” with fellow SCO states, expanding photovoltaic and wind power capacity by 10 million kilowatts each, and implementing 100 technology cooperation projects across the bloc over the next three years. He also promised to nurture green industry talent through China-SCO collaboration.
Regional Pushback and Protests
Xi’s sales pitch comes as several SCO members — including summit host Kyrgyzstan — have had fraught experiences with BRI projects in recent years. Protests have erupted across the region over the massive debt that Chinese-backed infrastructure projects impose on client states, the perceived threat to national sovereignty, and the influx of Chinese workers who often take the most desirable construction jobs.
The authoritarian leader emphasized China’s support for “major rail and port projects in Central Asia” and called for a “common security” approach that would crack down on “terrorism, separatism, and extremism,” as well as “transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, and telecom fraud.”
“We must prevent external forces from interfering in our internal affairs, endangering our political security, and undermining regional stability,” Xi added.
From Capital Provider to Debt Collector
Beijing has long cast the SCO as a natural extension of BRI, but independent analysis paints a less rosy picture. A May 2025 report by Australia’s Lowy Institute found that “soaring debt repayments and a sharp reduction in lending have transformed China’s role in developing country finances from capital provider to debt collector.”
According to the report, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries made “record high debt repayments totaling $22 billion to China” in the past year. Analysts noted a troubling dynamic: Western nations, wary of subsidizing Chinese projects, became reluctant to offer foreign aid or low-interest financing to BRI participants — even though those countries needed Western money to service their loans to Beijing.
India’s Opposition and a Bitter Joint Statement
China’s BRI push faces significant resistance from the SCO’s second-largest member, India. New Delhi has been a vocal opponent of the initiative, particularly the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), arguing that it violates the SCO Charter by infringing on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of participating nations.
The summit’s joint statement was notably critical of U.S. actions against Iran — an SCO member — and of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The statement reflected nervousness among members about Washington’s recent threats of secondary sanctions against countries continuing to do business with Tehran.
India and Pakistan, as is customary at SCO gatherings, accused each other of sponsoring terrorism. This time, the squabble may have tilted slightly in New Delhi’s favor: the joint statement incorporated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to avoid “double standards” on the issue.
“We must send a strong message to countries that use terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide safe haven and support to terrorists that terrorism can never be a strategic asset for anyone,” Modi said.
The summit in Kyrgyzstan appeared to end on a positive note for China and its anti-Western ally Russia, with the joint declaration’s sharp criticism of U.S. and Israeli policies signaling continued alignment against Western influence in the region.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2026/09/01/xi-jinping-pushes-belt-and-road-scam-at-central-asian-shanghai-cooperation-org-summit/