Chinese Davos: Beijing makes global leadership at the World Economic Forum
From globalization to protectionism
It can be said with confidence that the ideology of the current global economy and global world was shaped on the discussion platforms of Davos. The forum has become a center where current economic and political trends are determined. This time, the organizers of the WEF had to break their heads to choose the leading topic for discussion.
After all, the past year brought many new challenges to the global economic elite. The very idea of globalization has come under threat. The first blow to her was Brexit. The referendum in the United Kingdom showed the British desire to isolate themselves from the problems of Europe and focus on their own economy.
On the rise of the US economy tuned elected President of the United States, Donald Trump. Not so long ago, Trump said in a video message that one of his first steps as president would be withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership. The TTP was the first global association that put its internal rules above national laws and stipulated the right to sue any government that violated the terms of the partnership agreement.
Donald Trump, apparently, is not eager to sue American and other multinational companies on their terms. For the same reason, he intends to halt negotiations on the establishment of the Transatlantic Trade Partnership. Finally, the elected president of the United States demanded that American companies return the production of goods to the country and threatened prohibitive import tariffs for those who disobeyed.
All these actions, as well as anti-Russian economic sanctions, were a serious blow to the ideology of globalism and demanded that the organizers of the forum in Davos seriously adjust their agenda. So a topic emerged that became the leader in the current WEF, “Open and Responsible Leadership.”
At first glance, it is fully consistent with the nature of the event, and the composition of its participants. More than 50 heads of state and government came to Davos. However, today there is no forum of leaders of the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain ... The European Union and the latter are represented by the vice-presidents of the European Commission and commissioners.
It seems that the heads of the leading states of the planet took a pause to comprehend new processes in the world. It can be seen, the Davos forum with its 3000 participants is not very suitable for working out or at least defining an approach to new global challenges. This will require special and in a different format meetings of leaders of countries defining modern international economic relations.
The last day of the Davos Forum coincides with the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington. This is one of the reasons for the absence of an elected US president in Switzerland. His place in Davos was taken by Trump's adviser, the former hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, a long-time frequenter of the Davos Forum. This time, Scaramucci was in a new role. I had to answer questions about the plans of the new American administration in the world economy and politics.
China converts economic success into political
Western media called Anthony Scaramucci the star of the Davos forum. Meanwhile, the attention of the participants of the event was focused on a completely different person. For the first time in history WEF here appeared the head of China. PRC Chairman Xi Jinping arrived in Switzerland with a large delegation of Chinese businessmen, officials and politicians. He appeared on the forum as a senior leader in a children's sandbox.
The political weight of the Chinese leader was not commensurate with the authority of other panelists. This was immediately emphasized by the founder and host of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Professor Klaus Schwab. Representing Xi Jinping’s audience, Schwab said: “We can hope that China in this new world will take on the role of a responsible leader.”
Klaus Schwab called the appearance of the head of the People's Republic of China on the forum symbolic and saw this as "a sign of the transition from the unipolar world dominated by the United States to a multipolar system in which China will increase its role." The wording and epithets that accompanied the arrival of an important guest the host of the forum reflected the qualitatively new position of China in the world.
To him, Beijing went for many years. Through reforms and modernization of production assets, he rose to the first economy in the world. At least, China’s gross domestic product, calculated at purchasing power parity, surpassed the American one in 2014 year. According to the World Bank, China’s GDP at that time was $ 18083 billion, compared to $ 17348 billion in the United States of America. Since then, the gap is only widening.
Raised China and its political weight. Beijing did this through participation in BRICS, the SCO, an independent position on the UN Security Council, through investment international projects. The most famous of them is the Economic Belt of the Silk Road. It is already being implemented.
In the days of the Davos Forum at the train station in London, with the drums and dancers disguised as Chinese dragons, we met the first freight train from China.
He arrived from Yiwu city (eastern Zhejiang province), having covered 18 thousands of kilometers in 12 days. The train proceeded through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France and brought 58 containers with Chinese products to the British capital. The British Daily Mail noted that London had become the 15 city in Europe, with which China now has rail freight services.
The export-oriented economy of China dictates the country and the corresponding political decisions. They were voiced in Davos by Xi Jinping. He told reporters that global peace needs protection. “Protectionism, populism and de-globalization are on the rise. This is bad for economic cooperation at the global level, ”the PRC Chairman noted.
Thus, if the new administration of the United States wants to focus on the problems of the domestic economy, then China demonstrates its readiness to take America’s place in the global economic field. For this, his delegation appeared so representatively and massively in Davos.
In the absence of the majority of the leaders of the leading countries of the world, China did not have any serious opponents on the discussion platform. He could act freely, relaxedly, confidently, at times, “running into the territory”, where he hadn’t been before, or against the background of other world players, the Chinese had minimal effect on the overall situation.
So it was, for example, during a meeting of Xi Jinping with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China says: “Xi Jinping emphasized that China sincerely hopes that the situation of social stability and economic development will remain in Ukraine, he is ready to play a constructive role in overcoming the crisis by political means.”
In the interpretation of the Ukrainian president, the dialogue is presented somewhat differently. Poroshenko expressed the hope that China will contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass, "curbing Russian aggression" and "restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Crimea."
Experts explain China’s attention to Ukraine with a warning to the Russian president in his eventual rapprochement with the Donald Trump administration on anti-Chinese positions. This is said openly in Washington, and Beijing responded in Davos. True, during a speech at the Geneva Palace of Nations at a high-level meeting with the participation of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UN General Assembly President Peter Thompson Xi Jinping said that Beijing will maintain “comprehensive strategic partnership and coordination” with Russia. But the sediment remained.
It is clear that China has begun to formulate its new international agenda based on multilateralism, as befits a global leader. With the United States, Beijing "will seek to build a new relationship model." Europe is waiting for a partnership "for peace, growth, reform." China is counting on "unity and cooperation" in relations with the BRICS countries. With neighboring countries, China will strengthen “cooperation on the principle of consensus, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusion”.
This perspective of China’s new policy was outlined in China by the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. Behind this rhetoric there is no concrete practice yet. How will she change? We will follow the movement of Chinese hands ...
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