Premier Li Keqiang (center, left) and Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP (center, right), participate in a dialogue with U.S. business leaders at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, U.S. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang championed globalization in a rare commentary published on Bloomberg. Part of Li's comment stated: “We remain convinced that economic openness serves everyone better, at home and abroad.”
This is ironic, as China is not open to Bloomberg even.
Bloomberg, along with many other news outlets from the West, is one of the blocked news websites in Beijing.
Chinese citizens have to bypass its infamous "Great Firewall" in order for them to reach those news services, and bypassing the restrictions is becoming harder as time passes by.
The openness of Beijing to the world is selective, as its authorities published a notice that demands a cleanup of the country's Internet access service market. This notice includes new regulations regarding unauthorized Internet access as well as virtual private networks, which are tools used by Chinese Internet users to bypass the "Great Firewall."
Bloomberg and many foreign news services carefully select a sample of its reports and offer it through Chinese social media platforms in order for them to work around the censors. Bloomberg's publisher offered a piece of Li's commentary with a Chinese translation on its official WeChat account shortly after the commentary.
The publisher also noted on WeChat that the same column will appear in the upcoming English edition of the Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.
Li's commentary on Bloomberg came out a week after President Xi Jinping's speech about globalization at the World Economic Forum held in Davos. He rounded up China's economic achievements in most of the piece.
He ended the commentary with a reassuring tone, stating:
"In a world with a plethora of uncertainties, China offers an anchor of stability and growth with its consistent message of support for reform, openness, and free trade. The times may be difficult. But that’s all the more reason not to lose sight of these principles, which have stood China--and the world--in good stead."
