The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Development Research

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is the first regional cooperative organization established in the21st century and the first named after a Chinese city, in which China acts as a major promoter. The past decade has seen its glorious development with twists and turns since its founding.SCO has been committed to the progress in regional cooperation, gradually built up and improved meeting mechanisms among member countries at various levels, passed a series of fundamental documents as the legal basis for its further development. Two standing bodies, i.e., its secretariat in Beijing and a regional counter-terror institution based in Tashkent. Achievement has been made in security, economy, culture, education and many other areas of cooperation.Regional cooperation within the framework of SCO is an indispensable part of the regional integration process of Asia, especially Central Asia. The deepening integration process highlights common issues in the region, regional public goods appear with spillovers between national public goods and global public goods, which provides a new theoretical interpretation and perspective of regional cooperation. In case of insufficient supply of international public goods, it will be a general trend in the regional relationship for countries within the region to provide public goods urgently needed for regional development through collective action with their willingness and ability. The implication of such policies is that member countries can benefit from regional mechanism development by sharing cost instead of being a "free-rider". It is equally attractive for the members of SCO to participate in supplying public goods and promote cooperation in the region.Currently, regional public goods within the SCO framework are needed urgently, and through cooperation, especially with two dominating countries, i.e., China and Russia playing the role of proposal and guidance, a number of regional public goods have been provided in the fields of security, economics, and culture, including regional counter-terror mechanism, drug-control mechanism, cooperative mechanism for regional economic and trade, regional transportation network system, energy club and the "Shanghai Spirit". Yet, insufficiency still exists in terms of public goods in this region, with the top issue in both the low standard and lack of varieties. The reasons underlying these problems are the regional trust and identification to be enhanced, financing capacity restricted by economic development, low efficiency in execution of cooperation agreements as well as the discrepancies of preferences for public goods among the member countries and their interests in supplying. Therefore, to enhance internal cohesion, expand its regional and international influence and solve regional public issues practically through cooperation, SCO should improve its standard of regional public goods supply and augment the collective action among the members to offer sufficient and high-level regional public products by bringing into full play the leading roles of China and Russia, boosting the aspiration and capacity of member nations in the joint initiative, promoting public products standard and expanding varieties, developing funding channels, deepening dialogues and cooperations with other leading powers and international organizations and duly handling organizational expansion. These are also the strategies for the further development of SCO.With its peaceful rise, heightening comprehensive strength and expanding national interest, China is increasingly aware of the responsible role in regional and global public goods, which requires the sharing of the cost of such goods in the region, even exceeding the benefits to be gained, so as to make its contribution to regional stability and prosperity.To act as a responsible player in the region, China has, in recent years, endeavored to build a harmonious relationship with neighboring countries, proposing, dominating and also participating in the supply of many regional public goods, a number of cooperative mechanisms of SCO are the prominent examples among them. In the future, to play its own role in the supply of regional public goods, China should formulate clear strategic choices, take more initiatives in leading and sharing cost of relevant products, pay closer attention to the construction of public goods in the social fields, firmly stick to the principle of open-up and cooperation and make overall plans to coordinate international and domestic situations.