China would keep its doors open to the rest of the world – Danske Bank

Chinese President gave an unprecedented speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos as noted by the research team at Danske Bank.

Key Quotes

“For the first time ever, a Chinese President gave a speech at the WEF. In stark contrast to the signals from the new US administration, President Xi Jinping emphasised that co-operation is the only way to solve the challenges facing the world economy and that China would keep its doors open to the rest of the world, hoping other nations would follow suit.”

“Admittedly China is not the best example when it comes to free trade, with incoming US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross stressing afterwards that China is the ‘most protectionist’ major economy in the world and said China ‘talks much more about free trade than it actually practices’. However, there is probably no doubt that China wants to assert a bigger and more active role in the governance of the global economy, such as in the IMF, where China has now sought a bigger say and its currency has been included in the SDR basket. We also think that China will seek closer alliances with the rest of the emerging markets in view of more restrictive US trade and foreign policy regime.”