The Davos splash made last year by Xi Jinping, China’s leader, derived from his apparent defence of globalisation. His message played well to the globetrotting elite, but a year later the disharmonies between China and the west are proliferating.
The US, EU and Japan are complaining about perceived Chinese unfairness in areas such as intellectual property, industrial subsidies and Beijing’s orders that foreign companies should host Communist party cells. For its part, China is concerned at growing US and EU scrutiny of its outward investments.
Such matters, however, are all expressions of a deeper discord. The basic problem between China and the west is that the hopes for “convergence” that attended Beijing’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 have foundered on the rocks of incompatible political economies.