Lead globalization, resist trade wars
China made its point. In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Xi Jinping made a straightforward defense of globalization.
His speech represented China's courage in the face of the looming protectionism threatening to dismantle the global environment that has benefited different nations' cooperation and development, and which has helped millions of people lift themselves out of poverty in the past few decades.
It has become the latest dernier cri for populist movements in many places to blame globalism for domestic malaises, rather than the mismanagement of it. The politicians trying to manipulate such mass sentiments will only make things worse by spreading the illusion that history can be rolled back and a nation can develop by closing its doors to others.
