Chinese leader in Davos to preach advent of new world order

GENEVA, Jan 14 (AFP) - China's president will preach the advent of a new world order in Davos next week before the high priests of globalisation, who are facing an uprising from voters against their orthodoxy of open markets and borders.

The annual conclave of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps, grouping 3,000 delegates from the worlds of government, business, science and the arts, has created the caricature of “Davos Man”, a rich, rootless globetrotter who worships with fellow disciples in the church of free trade.

But populists are singing from a radically different hymn sheet. Their hostility towards both unfettered trade and immigration has already yielded Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the rise of once- fringe parties across Europe, including in France and Germany.

The ultimate rebuke to “Davos Man” will come on Friday, the last day of the week-long forum, when Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.

And the consensus of a rules-based global order led by Washington is threatened by communist China's inexorable rise.

In that context, it is noteworthy that Xi Jinping will become the first Chinese president to attend the forum when he gives a keynote speech on Tuesday that is expected to extol Beijing's efforts to negotiate new types of regional trade deals shorn of US influence.

This year's Davos “may be the start of China's new role as a leader in promoting globalisation and a speedy recovery of the global economy”, as Western countries turn to “isolationist self- centredness”, commentator Sun Ding wrote for China's official Xinhua news service.

IHS Markit chief economist Nariman Behravesh stressed China is in no position yet to replace the United States as a global hegemon, but told AFP: “In Davos, Xi will likely articulate China's vision for the world economic and political order.”