President Xi Jinping of China attends a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama at the Nuclear Security Summit March 31, 2016, in Washington, D.C. (Photo : Getty Images)
Xi Jinping will be the first sitting Chinese leader at the World Economic Forum’s annual event this month. The Chinese president plans to promote "inclusive globalization" in Davos.
Bringing together around 3,000 business, political and academic leaders from around the world, this year's forum will be held on the 17th to 20th of January.
On the forum's final day, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will be officially inaugurated into the White House, signaling the arrival of an aggressive new populist-in-chief.
It is expected that the discussions during the forum will be dominated by a surge in public hostility toward globalization and the rise of Trump as America's new head of state.
Xi will be heading the Chinese delegation of business executives from the second largest economy of the world, emphasizing the country's determination to assume the role as a global leader while others are plagued with domestic infighting.
Among the top Chinese businessmen who will be present are Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma and Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. chief executive officer Wang Jianlin.
"With the rise of populism, protectionism, and nativism, the world has come to a historic crossroad where one road leads to war, poverty, confrontation and domination while the other road leads to peace, development, cooperation and win-win solutions," shared State Council Information Office head Jiang Janguo.
He said that President Xi is planning to promote these with other world leaders in Davos during his keynote speech.
Despite the rising tension between China and the U.S., Xi's delegation is willing to meet with Trump's team during the forum. According to Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong, China has "open channels of communication" with Trump's delegation.
The U.S. will be represented in Davos by outgoing officials Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and someone from the Trump transition team.
With just about a week left before the WEF, it is interesting to see how things will turn out in Davos.
