The role of Davos in China's rise

The World Economic Forum and China may seem an odd couple, but Beijing has done well through this relationship

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Beijing's alliance with the World Economic Forum (WEF) started in 1979 with the arrival in Davos, Switzerland, of a small team of free-market economists led by a wizened Chinese intellectual, Mr Qian Junrui, who had barely survived Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. He had been imprisoned for eight years, tortured and repeatedly beaten unconscious.

China and Davos have since become one of the oddest power couples in international economics and politics.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 21, 2020, with the headline The role of Davos in China's rise. Subscribe