In the large, half-filled room, Jake Sullivan enumerates global disorders. The National Security Advisor to Joe Biden, one of the US President's closest aides, discusses the Russian war in Ukraine, attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, and the increased risk from China following the victory of Taiwanese independence advocates in the January 12 elections.
When they leave the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, participants find themselves in a different atmosphere. During the American speech, the hall was entirely decked out in red, and decorated with multicolored kites. The city of Dalian, a partner of the event, is celebrating Chinese New Year a little early. With its unlimited gourmet buffet, huge daikon radish sculpture, and beaming faces, the port city in northeast China, which hosts the annual "Chinese Davos," carefully cultivates its image as a friend of the West. A far cry from Sullivan's warnings from the other side of the divide.
And so it goes at Davos, still trying to maintain the fragile threads that bind business people from every continent together. In 2017, when President Xi Jinping came to sing the praises of globalization, Beijing chose to play the dove of world trade. Premier Li Qiang, appointed less than a year ago, did not come alone: 150 members of his delegation accompanied him, adding to the hundred or so Chinese entrepreneurs already on site.
A massive turnout for a speech on de-escalation. Launching into a bold metaphor comparing the Chinese economy to the majestic Alps, whose beauty can only be appreciated from a distance, he blamed American discrimination and opened his arms to foreign investors. "Investing in the Chinese market is not a risk, it's an opportunity," he said, declaring his willingness to relax regulations.
This is not an altruistic appeal. In the second quarter of 2023, the flow of foreign investment was negative for the first time since 1998. Money is fleeing a country that suddenly seems risky. The most recent indication this January is that Western consultants have been investigated for espionage.
Like his president, Li Qiang is an apostle of the current globalization process, which is highlighting the supremacy of Chinese industry in a world supply chain that is so efficient – when it is stable and fluid. "We don't want decoupling, but we do want to make our supply chains less risky," responded EC President Ursula von der Leyen, diplomatically. A way of indicating the end of a world that was so appealing to Davos entrepreneurs, but which is now past.