Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang dismissed the debate about reducing economic dependency on China as wrong. At the meeting of the “New Champions” of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin, the prime minister warned against the politicization of economic relations in the world and instead called for increased cooperation.
“Some in the West exaggerate the so-called talk of reducing dependency or de-risking,” said the new prime minister at the opening of the three-day “Summer Davos”, which is taking place for the first time since the pandemic with participants from 140 countries. “These two concepts are false tenets. Economic globalization has already made the world an integral whole in which everyone’s interests are closely intertwined.”
In his opinion, politics should stay out of it. If there are risks in certain industries, then companies are in the best position to assess them. “They should come to their own conclusions and make their own decisions,” said the prime minister. “Governments and relevant organizations should not take it too far, let alone overdo the concept of risk or turn it into an ideological tool.”
China’s economy
The new head of government had just returned from his first trip abroad to Germany and France. It was his first appearance at the meeting of the World Economic Forum, which since 2008 has held conferences in China alternately in Tianjin and Dalian in the summer, continuing the tradition of the winter debates in Davos in the Swiss mountains.
Despite the current weakness in China’s economic recovery, Li Qiang expressed confidence that the second-biggest economy grew faster in the second quarter than in the first quarter at 4.5 percent year-on-year. He also expects his government’s target of “around five percent” growth to be achieved this year.
