Beijing Signals Openness for Business with Premier Li Keqiang's Attendance at Davos

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang plans to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos next month, accompanied by a delegation of senior government officials to show that Beijing is open for business.

Reuters reports. 

Li Keqiang will be the highest-ranking Chinese official to meet with representatives of the world's business and political elite at the Swiss ski resort since President Xi Jinping attended the forum in 2017.

The newspaper writes that Li Keqiang will be accompanied by an unusually large and high-ranking delegation of senior officials from the ministries responsible for economic and foreign affairs.

China's presence in Davos is intended to emphasize its "openness to the outside world and ease some external pressure," Reuters writes.

Beijing is struggling with a sluggish recovery from the pandemic and is trying to attract foreign investors who have been scared off by Xi's increased focus on national security and the adoption of vague security laws. In July-September, China recorded its first quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment since records began in 1998.

The pressure on the world's second largest economy is exacerbated by weak consumer spending, declining Western demand for goods produced in China, deteriorating financial condition of local governments, and an increase in the number of defaults by developers on their debts. The plans may change depending on the schedules of various high-ranking Chinese officials.

The forum is scheduled for January 15-19 and is expected to attract a number of global business and political leaders.

Chinese premiers are typically responsible for overseeing the economy, but Xi has tightened his grip on power in recent years and steered the economy into a more straightforward statist direction.

Li Keqiang, a seasoned government official, emerged as a candidate for China's second-in-command last October when Xi unveiled a senior government made up of people loyal to him.

At the time, Li Keqiang was known for overseeing the strict isolation of Shanghai's 25 million people from COVID-19, which brought the city's economy to a standstill and left many of its residents traumatized.

Li Keqiang also played an important role in China's unexpectedly sudden abandonment of its zero-case COVID-19 policy late last year.

Last month, he was appointed chairman of China's financial watchdog, the Central Financial Commission, created as part of a broad restructuring that strengthened the Communist Party's oversight of the financial sector.