What happened in Bishkek — Dave Talks: Politics 🌐

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, that's it, it's all right. Bishik, what happened in Bishik? It's going fine now. One September, 2026, just happened to Xi Xingping from China. He used the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the SCO. It's 25th anniversary, 25 years, 24th quarter century. Well done, SCO. I don't realise it was that old, so yeah, 2001, it must have been form-grown. Wow, wow, there you go. So, look, Xi Xingping, he used the 25th anniversary to tell member states that grouping should now proactively guide the course of history. The room was not just a talking shop of all of the sort of minnoes. You had Putin, you had Modi, you had Pzishkan, Pzishkan, from Iran, and you had Shereef from Pakistan at the session. Udgan was there for the wider SCO plus meeting. So these are, you know, these are some fairly sizeable hitters here, and yeah, so basically Xi framed the SCO as the world's largest regional organisation by territory and population, spanning roughly half of humanity, and about a third of global output. What are you up to, mate? Hey, what are you up to? You're cheeky bugger. Look at this guy. Hey, cheeky bugger, look at him. I'll tell you, well, if I had a half a loaf of bread, that guy had just smashed the whole thing I reckon, or a pie, a kin of pie, maybe into it, like a robber's dog. And look at him, he's like, hey, what have you got in there? Yeah, I've got to get back to my work, mate. There you go. Yeah, he'd quite like a piece of a piece of pie. Yeah, where were we? Yeah, right. Okay, so Xi and half of humanity and a third of global output. So is he right? He's right. He's actually right. Of course he's right. It's not great, but it's right. Basically, he's saying, you know, this organisation that is very quietly and very discreetly building momentum, it's getting quite big, it's getting quite powerful. South China Morning Post reported, he contrasts at this, quote, new type of regional cooperation, and quote, with our alliance systems, that in Beijing's telling a rest on confrontation and the targeting of third parties, there you go. By the L, confrontation. Jesus, we don't want that. This was so basically the offer that should alarm Western capitals. Now, this is all from translation. I don't know what the hell he was saying because he's speaking Chinese. I don't speak Chinese. So, reading through the transcripts, this was not just a speech about slogans, you know, about soft namby, pamby sort of concepts. This was she attaching concrete infrastructure to politics. Now, watch out when the Chinese do infrastructure. They do it at a different cost input. So, they have, or because they make the rebar steel that goes into the bridge or the airport or runway, whatever, the building, because they make the rebar, because they make the cement, because they make the diggers and they make the, you know, all that sort of stuff. They make it all and they've got a cost of labor, which is incredibly competitive. They can do things and a fraction of the cost that we can. So, infrastructure, and of course, infrastructure lasts a long time. And if you haven't had it before, like in Africa, if you haven't had infrastructure, and all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden, you've got a main road. And that road is like, wow, compared to the mud tracks, which are just impossible to have about a clean drinking water versus getting, you know, constant sickness and illness, you know, these are really powerful things. Bringing infrastructure to a partner country is a really powerful. Now, have they always, let's just say, have they always been benevolent with their deals? No, not really. I think they're fairly aggressive capitalists. You know, they go in, they strike a hard bargain, and if you don't deliver, they'll, you know, they'll execute their rights under the agreement. That's going to say something much more severe, but let's leave it there. You know what I mean? You know, you do what you say. You're part of the dealers, you'll do this that and the other. And if you don't do that, then, you know, yeah, there are remedies in the agreement that shall be executed, basically, if you know what I mean. Yeah, so, look, historically, they have had a bad reputation. If you read the Western media, they've got a very bad reputation for insisting on remedies and actually making sure that those contracts are enforced and full, if you know what I mean. So, but infrastructure, all right, let's get back to infrastructure. It's a very powerful tool. It is a really powerful tool, long-term tool. You're bringing real benefits to the partnership, and those benefits are enduring. So that's why they're also, they're also layered. You know, you can put in one set of infrastructure and then you can add another layer to it and really increase productivity. You know, you build a road. And then the road comes up to a river. Shit, that's no good. Build a bridge. You know, you've incremented. You've added another layer of infrastructure and you've boosted productivity. It's much quicker now to get, you know, to get from there to there. Well, you're stuck at the end of the road. You're stuck at a hospital or you're stuck in airport. You know, so this is the sort of thing that you can do when you're working with, with partners, countries as a partner in a real and meaningful way. Yeah, so in the case of China, I mean, they've been doing this for a long time, but they're ramping it up. So an international AI application cooperation center, a China SEO port economic center in Tianjiang, and a 100 year technology set of technology projects, 100, I should say, technology projects over three years. Just cross that up. Yeah. I mean, the first one's pretty, really scary, really, an AI application cooperation center. If you know anything about AI, then you know how advanced China is, and we're really, we're so early, these frontier models are currently, or they have been in the domain of the West, specifically the US. They have been a, since Google put the paper out, and was it 2018, and in my view, you know, if you know the Google Assistant from 2014, it had signs, very distinct signs of, you know, AI. It seemed, it just seemed like you'd ask a question. It would just go, take away for a second, give it the answer. It was better than, you know, the Apple equivalent now. So, China, I mean, they caught up real fast, right? Real fast. I mean, it's shocking how quickly they caught up, but scary, really. So now they're announced, an AI cooperation center. Bloody hell. I mean, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, and then an economic center for ports, and 100 technology projects over the next three years. Christ. I don't imagine these are small projects. I'm sure these are fairly sizable projects. So, you've now got thousands, tens of maybe hundreds of thousands of people who are going to be involved in this build-out of capability. It's also pledged extra solar and wind capacity, so energy generation that fits snugly into AI. With SEO partners and treated the organization as a priority vehicle for Belt and Road, and for the GDI, the Global Development Initiative. And on security, he called for watch out for security. Watch out for security. He called for, when all this Ukraine stuff is done, not long to wait now, when all this Ukraine stuff is finished, when all the Iran stuff has kind of finished. And eventually, I guess they'll kick off Cuba or something like that, so they'll do that sort of stuff, all the rats and mice. But basically, you know, all the major stuff, it's kind of done. So, we're going to do them. You know, what are you going to do? It's like, yeah, it's a big question, Mark. Can they do anything? Have they run out of resource? Have they run out of weapons? Have they run out of, have they exhausted their you know, the population with all this crazy shit? I think they have, but, you know, who knows? On security, what did she say? So, on security, called for, coordinate action against terrorism, separatism, extremism, thisism, thatism, and organised crime, drug trafficking, telecom forward. What the hell? Telecom forward? Plus, tired of work on information, biotech, and space security. That's a lot of shit to talk about. That's a lot to cover. Yeah, they didn't do. I think it's a publication. Note at the line that I should have said off every Western Embassy, member states must quote, prevent external forces from interfering in our internal affairs, end day during our political security and undermining regional stability. Boy, boy. Yeah, member states is half the world, team is half the world. Yeah, it doesn't just say that. You know, you don't just say that. You actually have a programme of action that supports that. So, yeah, that's really interesting. Do you think about it, right? Think about it, if that means that an action by the West, let's say, the Spookson, London, or the US, if they were together collectively, or the fireflies, if the fireflies go and are caught interfering in the politics of a member of the Global South, which includes most of South America, by the way. What? Oh, yeah, I don't know. So, it's off-consumed. It's off-consumed. So, the SCO plus, you know what I mean, it's off-consumed because a lot of countries there, and we are used to having our way in terms of doing what the hell we like. We being, you know, the Spookson, the West, on Team West, they have, they've had the joint to themselves, basically. They are uni-polar, they are uni-power, they basically run the joint. So, there's a transition happening here. I'm reading a literally quoting from yesterday when she read it out. So, translate it, of course. But, I mean, it's pretty clear what he's saying. You know, it's pretty clear what he's saying. Cuba is actually in brackets there. You know what I'm saying? So, I don't know how that works, but it's an interesting sort of thought to ponder. Right, so, so, this is basically an operating system that competes with the West. That's what this huntai thing is about. So, at the SCO plus session, she said, the trend towards a multi-polar world, he actually said these words. It's quite surprising. Actually, I try to say the word multi-polar virtually every episode because I think it's at the heart of the transition that we're witnessing. And boy, are we lucky to be on this timeline? To actually see, you know, it's probably the first time in at least a hundred years, maybe longer that we've actually seen this giant power transition happen. And we're watching it. We're right in the middle of it. It's pretty cool, man. I think it's fantastic. Just amazing. Yeah, so basically, he's arguing that the transition is irreversible. And that most countries now reject power politics. They reject confrontation. They reject isolation. Yeah, I mean, that's, that is the, of course, that's the position that he'll be trying to advocate. I think they're listening. I think the Global South is listening. The four principles he offered were not diplomatic wallpaper. They were a direct challenge to American exceptionalism. And America is exceptional. I think, in my view, it's exceptional. Absolutely. That has enormous potential. Way more than you can ever imagine. Even now, with all the stuff that's gone on, I still back America, man. America for the win. Absolutely. Never, ever underestimate America. It's really, it's a cultural thing because in America, you know, look, the China is a great at copying, right? They say this, right? They say this. They joke about it. Oh, that's an amazing thing. I'm going to take a home and copy it. Basically. And they're very good at it. Right, they will take it home. They will study it. They'll measure it. They'll find a way to create a casting, to replicate it. And then before you know, your Honda engine has just been, you know, your Japanese monopoly you've had on the four-stroke engine has just been copied by China. And they're pumping it out of the, at a 100th of the cost. And they're selling it globally. And they're selling it as with a Honda sticker on it. It's even worse. It's terrible. Yeah. So, they are very good at this. But I think we, collectively, I mean, you know, let's just say the West, in my view, is basically America and New Zealand Australia. And maybe Canada, if it's sorts of shit out. I know it's going to, it's running a fine line there. It's got to figure that out. But Canada as well. I think there's a few, a few countries in Europe that are still, I think Spain is awesome. Wicked country is Spain. Italy, great potential, great potential in Italy. And there's a few others there that I think have got huge potential to really be the amazing design and build. And that's what America's great for. Italy as well. And I mean, Jesus, they know how to design. Boy, the engineering prowess, the creative skills, just the pure talent in Italy. It's amazing. And so I think we, we in the West, you know, in those countries, we're bloody good, right? We're really good at inventing and creating, seeing new evolving design patterns and really grabbing them and thrashing them. You know, we've got the venture capital sort of, you know, set up to really leverage and lean into successful projects. It also caught the ones that are cramped. We're very good at that. So I don't think China is. I don't think they're very good at that. But, you know, we've seen that with the AI, right? Frontier AI took off and then we had the Chinese guys came in. They distilled those models, which I think was actually genius in and of itself. I mean, that's not an easy thing to do, right? They distilled the models, which is like, I mean, that's off to you, man. But that's, it's, I'm always backing team America because, you know, Trump will be gone soon and then there'll be somebody else. They could be amazing. It could be absolutely amazing. So, you know, just if I was you, I'd think beyond what's up to you, but if I was you, I mean, have a think about thinking beyond this current situation and think to what comes next because it could be bloody amazing. It could be absolutely amazing. I definitely think the inventiveness is going to be based in America. Texas. I think Texas is going to be a real perfect point for a lot of these technologies, not just Texas, but right across the state. So, let's go back to sheep because he's dropping some bombs, man. So, the four principles he offered were, they weren't just diplomatic wallpaper. He assigned the SEO three jobs. One, connect Eurasian growth poles through the Belt and Road. Two, back the Global South and reform global governance. And through partnerships rather than alliances, that's two, not three. Connect Eurasian growth poles through the Belt and Road. Back the Global South. Oh, right. So, number two is back the Global South. Number three is reform global governance. But do it through partnerships rather than alliances. So, that's the three big jobs that he's given to the SEO. The Globe and Mail put the contrast bluntly while Western Finance Ministers argued in North Carolina, she was in Central Asia, presenting China as the organizer of what comes after American primacy. That's actually kind of fair. And I do think that's the path we're on. I just believe in America. I think America's got the shoots, but to really get off the ground, get enough air speed up, pull up on the stick, and climb, climb, climb. You can do it, America. Come on. The West still treats the SEO as a talk shop. With India Pakistan, big, you know, causing a big problem in there, it's stupid. A bloody stupid to take that position. Because the grouping now includes some pretty big powers there. Bala Russia, Central Asian States as full members, Iran, Iran's in there, India's in there, Russia's in there, China's in there. I mean, you know, look, they're a serious outfit, man, they're a serious outfit. Now, these countries they sit on enormous reserves of energy, enormous reserves of minerals, some incredible fertile land, which can produce massive amounts of food. It's critical land routes that bypass the, you know, the traditional sea lanes that were in the West, or certainly the Navy in the, the analysts, they say, oh, we've got control of, you know, Malacca, we've got control of the Red Sea, we've got control of the, you know, the Panamakan now, and all that bullshit, but really, there are loads of alternatives. And that's what the SEO are focused on. Yeah, bloody interesting, you know? Europe in the United States, they keep answering all this with tariffs, with lectures, with fractured summits, with, you know, forcing the Russian to stand outside the G20 family photo. So, Jesus Christ, it's not the way to win, guys, it's not the way to win. Yeah, so closing question. So, let's have a think about this. If Beijing, if they can stand in this place called Bishkek for the SEO, if they can call out, they are, they're basically the old order is finished. And they can hand the next chairmanship to Pakistan, which is a traditional US ally, while half the planet basically nods, literally, half the planet is going, yep, we're with you, man. I mean, what right do we have to write the rules and insist on certain rules, you know? And how much longer can we in the West pretend that we control us? Because we just don't, right, we just don't. And the longer it takes to come to terms with that, I think the worse it will be for us, the sooner we come to terms with this, and the sooner we leverage it to our advantage, we are the sun is setting on, you know, the world that we've lived in since 1999, since the end of the Cold War. The USA has had quarter century, so the straight run for a quarter century, that's over. It's over now, and we're heading into a new age, so it's just, I mean, just, it's crazy that we're here to laugh at the bells, or figure those out. It's just awesome, yeah.