Following the successful 2024 SCO Summit in Astana, the rotating chairmanship passed to China, which intends to elevate cooperation among member states to a new level. In this context, Han Chunlin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Kazakhstan, shares in detail the priorities of China’s 2024–2025 chairmanship, as well as the strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing regional security, spurring economic growth, and expanding humanitarian exchanges.
In this article, we focus on the key directions of China’s policy, including President Xi Jinping’s concept of the “Five Shared Homes.” This framework is designed to strengthen solidarity, mutual trust, and fairness throughout the region. China has also declared 2025 the “Year of Sustainable Development for the SCO” and introduced a broad program spanning poverty alleviation, food security, digital economy, energy, and environmental projects.
Moreover, preparations are underway for the landmark 2025 SCO Summit, the central event of China’s chairmanship. Participants plan to adopt a strategic declaration in honor of the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II and the founding of the United Nations, while also formulating a long-term development strategy for the organization.
©️ Tengrinews.kz / Turar Kazangapov
How does China plan to reinforce the SCO’s position on the global stage? Which steps will Beijing take to deepen economic cooperation and address global challenges? And what role does Kazakhstan play in this process? These are the questions addressed in Ambassador Han Chunlin’s article.
SCO Development and the “Shanghai Spirit”
Since its establishment in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has consistently adhered to the “Shanghai Spirit”—a set of guiding principles based on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity, and the pursuit of common development. By upholding these core values, the SCO has strengthened political trust, fostered neighborly and friendly ties, worked collectively to safeguard regional security, and expanded practical cooperation. Consequently, its influence, cohesion, and appeal have been steadily increasing.
© Sputnik / Sergey Velichkin
Over time, the “family” of the SCO has grown from its original six founding states to the current 10 member states, with 2 observer states and 14 dialogue partners—26 countries in total across three continents. Collectively, these nations cover over 36 million square kilometers (more than 65% of the Eurasian landmass) and include more than 3.3 billion people, around 42% of the global population. This makes the SCO the largest transregional organization in the world in terms of both territory and population.
Thanks to concerted efforts by its member states, the SCO continues to broaden cooperation in six main areas: politics, security, economics, humanitarian outreach, foreign policy, and institution-building. The organization has demonstrated an effective model for peaceful development, acting as a safeguard for security, a bridge of cooperation, and a bond of friendship. It stands as a constructive force supporting comprehensive security and stability, as well as common development and prosperity, laying the groundwork for a new type of international relations.
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China and Kazakhstan: Strategic Partners Within the SCO
As founding members of the SCO, China and Kazakhstan maintain a close working partnership within the organization, having played a pivotal role in its formation and progress across various sectors. Both states are active proponents and practitioners of building a shared future community under the SCO framework.
During Kazakhstan’s 2023–2024 chairmanship, the nation fully embraced its responsibilities by displaying a practical and results-oriented approach. In July 2024, the Astana SCO Summit concluded successfully, producing the “Astana Declaration,” an Initiative for a Fair and Harmonious World Based on Unity Among Countries, a Statement on the Principles of Good-Neighborliness, Mutual Trust, and Partnership, along with 26 final documents addressing areas such as economics, finance, security, humanitarian exchanges, and the organization’s institutional structure. These outcomes underscored the SCO’s strategic importance in bolstering stability, security, and prosperity in the region.
At the Summit, President Xi Jinping underscored the need for SCO member states to firmly establish a sense of shared destiny, offering mutual support and pursuing the creation of “Five Shared Homes”—for solidarity and trust, peace and security, prosperity and development, neighborliness and friendship, equality and justice. This concept sets a new strategic direction for the SCO.
After the Astana Summit, the SCO chairmanship returned to China for the first time in seven years. Beijing is leveraging this opportunity to promote unity and collaboration, actively translating President Xi’s “Five Shared Homes” concept into practical outcomes and continuing to build a new model of international relations and a community of shared future for humanity, grounded in mutual respect, equity, justice, and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Key Priorities of China’s SCO Chairmanship
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One Overarching Theme, Eight Core Areas. China has designated 2025 as the “Year of Sustainable Development” for the SCO and will stage a series of initiatives across eight priority sectors identified in the Global Development Initiative: poverty reduction, food security, health and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialization, the digital economy, and connectivity. China will further align the Belt and Road Initiative with regional development strategies, strengthening collaboration in areas such as trade and investment, energy, the digital economy, modern agriculture, and green development to support modernization efforts across the region.
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The 2025 SCO Summit and Two Major Documents. The 2025 Summit is set to be a key highlight of China’s chairmanship. Building on the successful 2018 Qingdao Summit, China aims to host a friendly, cohesive, and productive summit that will guide the SCO into a high-quality stage of development characterized by unity, deeper cooperation, dynamism, and efficiency. A Summit Declaration—marking both the 80th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the global victory over fascism, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the UN—will articulate the SCO’s unified stance on major international and regional issues and lay out the organization’s strategic direction for the coming years.
- One Motto, Over a Hundred Events. Upon assuming the chairmanship, China introduced the motto: “Promoting the Shanghai Spirit: The SCO in Action.” This slogan signals to the region and the world that the SCO is not simply a “talk shop”; it is a practical and results-driven organization. China will host the Council meeting of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, meetings of heads of border authorities, joint anti-terror exercises, and more. Such initiatives aim to enhance security cooperation and deepen mutual trust among SCO member states.
Additional activities—ranging from professional competitions and livestreamed e-commerce events to publishing industry conferences—will broaden sectoral collaboration. Forums, youth camps, the Kunming International Marathon, and women’s forums will further facilitate cross-cultural understanding and strengthen ties among citizens of SCO countries. Under the “Year of Sustainable Development” banner, China has already conducted training in green development and poverty reduction, and encouraged sharing low-carbon, eco-friendly technologies, delivering real benefits to countries and communities in the region.
Kirill Kalinnikov/RIA Novosti
Looking ahead, besides ministerial-level meetings, China will host a variety of high-profile events—forums for political parties to exchange experiences, roundtables on global governance, youth innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, film and television festivals, and arts festivals—injecting renewed dynamism into SCO development.
The SCO in an Era of Global Challenges
Today, the world is witnessing far-reaching changes and grappling with persistent challenges. Geopolitical confrontations, unilateralism, and protectionism are on the rise, while both traditional and non-traditional threats to security are intensifying. Humanity once again finds itself at a historical crossroads, and the international community expects the SCO to assume a greater role in maintaining global stability and spurring progress.
TASS/RIA Novosti
China remains firmly committed to the vision of a community of shared future for humankind. Working together with other member states, it aims to fully promote the “Shanghai Spirit,” bolster solidarity and cooperation, and help the SCO rise to new heights. The organization’s mechanisms will continue to improve, and its collaboration in various fields will deepen. By faithfully implementing global initiatives relating to development, security, and cross-cultural engagement, the SCO can make a sizable contribution to regional and global peace, stability, and prosperity.
In essence, China’s SCO chairmanship paves the way for the organization’s transformation into an even more influential actor on the global stage, thus reshaping Eurasia’s geopolitical balance for the better. Kazakhstan will remain an active participant and a linchpin in this process, striving to ensure peace, security, and mutually beneficial economic and humanitarian cooperation throughout the region.
