CHINA’S SEARCH FOR PARTNERS WITH SHARED WORLDVIEWS: EXPANDING THE “SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION FAMILY”

Abstract

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was the first multilateral institution to be initiated by the People's Republic of China and is now the world's largest regional organization. This study investigates how the SCO has enlarged its ‘circle of friends’, which I understand as one of several ways that China attempts to spread its vision of international relations internationally. I focus on two major ways through which the SCO has increased this ‘circle’, namely membership expansion and cooperation with other regional and international organizations. Drawing on official SCO and Chinese government documents as well as first-hand interview data gathered in China in 2018, the study offers insights into the core mechanisms through which the Chinese-led organization has expanded its ‘circle of friends’ and discusses these developments against the backdrop of China’s ambition to influence the international order through the SCO. The analysis will make evident that the SCO has managed to extend far beyond its founding member states and that this supposedly helps China gain support for its normative views and arguments on the international level.