In China, I searched for Davos Man but found someone else entirely different
The talk at China’s answer to Davos fixated on the deep tech behind tomorrow’s economy, with superpower drama a distant second.
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Participants attending a seminar at Dalian International Conference Centre during the World Economic Forum’s “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” in Dalian, China, on June 24.
PHOTO: AFP
We know, and sometimes relish deriding, the archetype “Davos Man”: the global alpha elite who descend on the Swiss Alps every January, their frequency tuned mostly to what the West wants, fears and gripes about.
That impulse was amped up in 2026, especially as US President Donald Trump stole the show with a rare appearance, where hundreds queued to hear him taunt allies and press his case to take Greenland. After all the upheaval of recent years, the Trump obsession endures.
