Motorcades, barricades and red carpets: Tianjin stages China's biggest SCO summit

With motorcades sweeping down flag-draped boulevards and police presence at every junction, Tianjin got its turn in the geopolitical spotlight over the weekend: More than 20 world leaders converging in the northern port city as China pitches itself as an alternative to the US-led international order.

- Michelle Ng

TIANJIN -

On the morning of Aug 31, the first day of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, China rolled out the red carpet at the Tianjin airport to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Similar diplomatic pageantry greeted leaders who had arrived the day before, among them Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

On Tianjin's main streets, curious residents gathered at barricades, hoping for a glimpse of the motorcades of Chinese and visiting leaders as they swept past.

On Aug 31, Chinese President Xi Jinping held eight bilateral meetings with the leaders of the Maldives, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, India, Turkey and Vietnam.

This was a continuation of the rapid-fire diplomacy he began the day before the two-day summit opened, when he met five leaders from Kazakhstan, Egypt, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, as well as the United Nations secretary-general.

Of the meetings on Aug 31, the most closely watched one was Mr Xi's meeting with Mr Modi as New Delhi and Beijing seek to dial down tensions following their deadly border clashes in 2020.

Mr Xi and his wife, Ms Peng Liyuan, also hosted a welcome banquet for guests attending the summit.

Beyond the pageantry, the SCO summit underscores Beijing's effort to project inclusivity and present the bloc as a multilateral organisation through small but deliberate details, even as critics say the summit is all optics and no substance.