President Jinping once again announced himself as the champion of multilateralism as well as gave sombre warnings about calamitous consequences of major powers confronting each other (economically or militarily) in the post-COVID world. “Our world today is far from the tranquil, rhetoric that stokes hatred and prejudice abound… Protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one. They ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one’s own,” said President XI as per the official translation.
President Jinping began the proceedings by projecting China’s handling of COVID pandemic as a rare success in terms of breaking the COVID infection chain as well as posting healthy economic growth rates in the past two years when the global economy has shrunk. China recently reported that its economy grew by 8.1 percent for the 2021-22 financial year which led to GDP expansion to USD 18 trillion.
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President Xi lauded the international society for bravely fighting the “once-in-a-century” pandemic that has ripped through countries across the world causing a massive loss in human and economic resources. However, he warned about the dynamic nature of the pandemic which has witnessed new COVID variants emerging as well as countries confronting resultant COVID waves. One of the major ramifications of the pandemic has been the disruption in supply chains which has created major bottlenecks in supply of energy and other crucial commodities (food, semiconductors) etc., which has soared energy prices and caused high levels of food inflation across the world. Over 155 million people have plunged into poverty in the past two years due to COVID-induced lockdowns and associated inflation, as per latest reports.
President Xi reaffirmed the global community of his country’s commitment to smoothen the supply chain crisis to help global economy recover as well as advocated for resumption of international travel even though he gave no timeline for loosening border controls. He also assured the international community of “safe and secure” 2022 Winter Olympic games starting February 4 next month. China has been following a strict Zero-COVID policy to disrupt the Omicron-induced infection chain and has already put three cities, with a total population of 20 million, in lockdown. Later this year, President Xi will attempt to secure a third term as Chinese Communist Party’s General Secretary.
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This year’s The Davos Agenda event was held virtually for the second consecutive year due to repeated waves of COVID infection and the advent of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
