A growing club led by Xi and Putin to counter the US is adding a staunchly pro-Russia member

View In Browser July 3, 2024    Nectar Gan A growing club led by Xi and Putin to counter the US is adding a staunchly pro-Russia member   A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders' vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow's war on Ukraine.   The expected admission of Belarus to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at its annual leaders' summit in Astana, Kazakhstan is another push by Beijing and Moscow to transform the grouping – from a regional security bloc into a geopolitical counterweight to Western institutions led by the United States and its allies.   Belarus, which helped Russia to launch its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, will become the latest authoritarian state to join the club, after Iran became a full member last year.   Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have arrived in Astana for the summit that begins Wednesday, in what will be their second meeting this year. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the world's largest democracy, is skipping the event, pointing to unease among some members about the direction the SCO is headed.   Founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to combat terrorism and promote border security, the SCO has grown in recent years in line with Beijing and Moscow's shared ambition to counter what they see as US "hegemony" and reshape the international system in their favor.   In 2017, the bloc underwent its first expansion to welcome India and Pakistan. After adding Belarus, it will boast 10 members, representing more than 40% of the world's population and roughly a quarter of the global economy. It also has two observer states, Afghanistan and Mongolia, and more than a dozen "dialogue partners" from Myanmar to Turkey and the Arab states.   The SCO's expansion comes after another bloc led by China and Russia, the BRICS group of major emerging economies, more than doubled its membership and significantly extended its global reach last year.   As the SCO grows in international visibility and economic weight, it has also broadened in geopolitical ambitions.   The expected admission of Belarus, which borders the European Union, "really highlights how the SCO's mission has changed in the last few years," said Eva Seiwert, an expert on China's foreign policy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin.   "Unlike Iran, you don't really get much like economic or security cooperation out of Belarus joining. And that's why I argue that it's more of a geopolitical move."   With Russia deep in the third year of its grinding war against Ukraine, the SCO has become a crucial diplomatic avenue for Putin, as well as a platform to showcase he's not isolated internationally. And as China's relations with the US have plummeted, Beijing is now less concerned about the SCO being branded an anti-Western organization – a perception that has only deepened following Iran's admission, Seiwert said.   "They want the SCO to be perceived as a major bloc that cannot be ignored anymore," she said. "With all these countries joining, China and Russia (want to show they) both have a lot of supporters for their worldviews."   And in that shared worldview, there is no place for the US in Eurasia.   Keep reading about the bloc's ambitions, and unease.   More on Xi's vision of a new world order: China has a sweeping vision to reshape the world — and countries are listening Putin touts solidarity with China in Xi's pitch for new world order as crisis grips Middle East Precious samples NASA has weighed in on China's successful collection of historic samples from the far side of the moon – and potential US access to these precious rocks.   NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN he's "pleased to hear CNSA intends to share" the materials collected by the Chang'e-6 lunar probe last month. The samples, gathered using a drill and a mechanical arm, include up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar dust and rocks from an ancient crater on the moon's far side, which is never visible to Earth.   "Make it available to the international community just as we will when we start bringing additional samples back, and as we did a half a century ago with the samples brought back from the six Apollo moon landings," Nelson said.   It's a rare moment of consensus for two space agencies competing to land astronauts on the moon and build a base near the lunar south pole. But US access to the samples may be stymied by a 2011 law known as the Wolf Amendment, which effectively bans the space agency from cooperating with its Chinese counterpart.   Read more here. Taiwanese fishing boat detained near frontline islands   The Chinese coast guard detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel in waters off China's southeast coast on Tuesday night, in the latest flare-up of tensions around a group of frontline islands controlled by Taipei.   In a statement, Taiwan's coast guard said the fishing boat, Tachinman 88, was intercepted by two Chinese coast guard vessels near the Kinmen islands, which lie just miles from the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou. All five crew members were also detained, according to Taiwan authorities.   China coast guard officers boarded the fishing boat and then escorted it to a nearby Chinese port, the Taiwanese statement said, adding that three Taiwan coast guard vessels answered a call for help but retreated to avoid conflict when they were outnumbered by their Chinese counterparts.   China's coast guard confirmed it detained the boat, saying in a statement Wednesday that its Fujian division had "lawfully boarded, inspected and detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel suspected of illegal fishing in the offshore waters near Quanzhou."   China coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun accused the Taiwanese boat of violating a summer fishing moratorium by operating trawl nets in a prohibited area and using nets with mesh sizes much smaller than China's national minimum requirements, thereby "damaging marine fisheries resources and the ecological environment."   The Chinese statement did not mention the status of the crew members.   China's ruling Communist Party claims self-governing Taiwan as its territory despite having never controlled it, and has vowed to unify with the island, by force if necessary.   And Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taipei since President Lai Ching-te, who it openly loathes as a "dangerous separatist," won the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party a historic third consecutive term in power in January.   Meanwhile, tensions remain high in the waters around Kinmen, a group of outlying islands controlled by Taiwan but nestled just a stone's throw from the shores of China.   Read the full story here.   — By  Eric Cheung and Nectar Gan   Pick of the Day What exactly is going on in Washington, and what does it mean for the rest of the world? We're delivering our global readers the political context and analysis they need with CNN's Meanwhile in America newsletter. Plus, our daily updates cover the historic 2024 election and important White House developments. Click here to sign up Around the region A crowd crush at a religious gathering in northern India killed more than a hundred people, mostly women, in one of the deadliest such incidents the country has seen in recent years. India's T20 World Cup-winning cricket team will finally be able to fly home after being stuck in Barbados due to a powerful hurricane. Banks across Japan have begun stocking their ATMs with shiny new yen notes sourced from an unlikely location – vibrant yellow flowering paperbush shrubs that grow on craggy Himalayan mountains in Nepal. McDonald's has cut breakfast service timings by 90 minutes in Australia, after a shortage of eggs caused by bird flu outbreaks that led to the slaughter of about 1.5 million chickens. The son of Asia's richest man is getting married in one of India's most anticipated — and lavish — weddings of the year. What did you think of today's email? Send us feedback: meanwhileinchina@cnn.com   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Meanwhile in China. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or sign up to manage your CNN account   Learn more about the CNN app |  Get CNN web alerts  |  Sign up for a free CNN account   ® © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. 1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318