Beyond the choreography of power lies an attempt to question the economic architecture that has governed the world for decades. For Latin America, the idea of plural financial institutions resonates with decades of struggle against debt dependency and austerity. If the SCO’s economic initiatives mature, they will add to the alternatives already being explored by BRICS and other coalitions of the Global South. A fairer order cannot emerge if governments of the Global South simply replace one dependency with another. The SCO summit in Beijing should thus be remembered less for its military parade than for the questions it raised about justice in the global economy.