China deployed the term Global South to lead developing discourse

In the leadup to the September 2026 U.S.-China summit, President Xi Jinping deployed the term “Global South” heavily during speeches at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek and the BRICS summit in Delhi, signaling Beijing’s calculated bid to define and lead the developing world’s geopolitical discourse.

The Evolution of a Geopolitical Label

The term “Global South” originally held academic meaning. It suggested that “South” issues exist within developed countries too, indicating that the North-South divide should not be viewed through spatially separate terms. Around 2020, however, international forums began using the phrase differently. Following the war in Ukraine, a view spread—especially in Western countries—that sharply delineated the advanced democracies from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, while treating remaining nations as the “Global South.”

China initially viewed this Western-originated framing with deep suspicion, considering it a wedge designed to separate Beijing from the developing world. Because China’s self-identification has been as a developing country—and indeed, as the representative of the developing world—it was unwilling to accept a label that would separate China from developing countries. That resistance hit a turning point when India hosted the online “Voice of Global South Summit” on January 12 and 13, 2023, pointedly excluding China from the guest list in a move that appears to have come as a significant shock to Beijing.

Beijing Reclaims and Redefines the Narrative

China’s strategic pivot materialized following the enactment of its Foreign Relations Law on June 28, 2023. Article 4 of that legislation calls for upholding the five principles of peaceful coexistence and explicitly uses the term “developing country” twice, reinforcing Beijing’s identity as a developing country.

By July 2023, Foreign Minister Wang Yi suddenly began using the term “Global South” at international conferences, initially placing it inside quotation marks. During the Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security in Johannesburg on July 25, Wang deployed the term with quotation marks, prompting Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning to offer an official state definition at a press conference: “The ‘Global South’ is the family of emerging markets and developing countries.” Wang Yi subsequently listed “independence,” “development,” and “justice” as the defining qualities of the Global South, declaring that “China is a natural member of the Global South and will always be part of the developing world.”

Timeline Event	Key Official / Actor	Strategic Action
January 2023	India	Hosted the “Voice of Global South Summit” without inviting China.
June 28, 2023	China	Enacted Foreign Relations Law, reaffirming China’s identity as a developing country.
July 25, 2023	Wang Yi & Mao Ning	Introduced “Global South” into official lexicon using quotation marks, defining it as emerging markets and developing countries.
2024–2025	China	Gradually dropped quotation marks from the term in official documents and publications like Qiushi.
August–September 2026	Xi Jinping	Employed the term without quotation marks at the SCO summit in Bishkek and the BRICS summit in Delhi.

Observers note that this calculated shift allowed Beijing to neutralize a term it could no longer ignore. Rather than letting Western capitals or regional rivals like India shape the concept, China stepped into the vacuum to define the Global South on its own terms, advancing its broader pursuit of discourse power.

From Quotation Marks to Uncontested Rhetoric

As the phrase gained widespread currency among leaders of developing countries, Beijing dropped the protective punctuation. By the end of 2024, Chinese documents routinely omitted the quotation marks around “Global South.” A 2025 article by Wang Yi published in Qiushi featured the term entirely unbracketed.

While minor inconsistencies persisted through 2025 where officials occasionally reverted to quotation marks, those instances faded. By the time Xi Jinping addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek and the BRICS summit in Delhi, his usage of the term carried no quotation marks whatsoever. Today, with the definition of the Global South remaining fiercely contested globally, China has positioned itself as a member of the Global South and has come to behave as its representative.