China’s re-globalisation paradox

At the annual World Economic Forum meeting this week in Davos, Switzerland, China’s economic tsar, Liu He, met a number of “old friends” he had not seen during his country’s long battle with covid-19. In a solicitous speech, he acknowledged the importance of in-person meetings, lamented the fragmentation of the world and called for economic “re-globalisation”. In a philosophical aside, he also emphasised the “duality” of things.