In Bishkek, the leaders of Russia, China, and more than a dozen other nations have gathered beneath the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation — a body born as a trade forum a quarter-century ago, now quietly reshaped into a platform for imagining a world no longer centered on Western power. The summit arrives at a charged moment, as Washington moves to pressure Beijing over a $1.2 trillion trade surplus, and Moscow continues to seek legitimacy beyond the reach of Western censure. What unfolds in Kyrgyzstan is less a diplomatic meeting than a mirror held up to the fractures of the cur