The View | At Boao, Xi Jinping shows the world a grown-up China amid trade war threats

Richard Harris says instead of engaging Donald Trump in a battle of one-upmanship, the Chinese leader demonstrated statesmanship by promising to further open up China’s economy, in the interests of trade and globalisation

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Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to walk off stage after speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia conference in Boao, Hainan, on April 10. If Xi is able to open up the economy as dramatically as Deng Xiaoping did 40 years ago, he will be close to grasping the cloak of global statesmanship. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 12:15pm, 12 Apr 2018Updated: 10:32pm, 12 Apr 2018

Boao, in Hainan, is about as far away climatically from Davos, in Switzerland, as you can get. Moving from cold and crisp to hot and sticky is a big step for regular economic conference groupies and, despite superficial similarities, the meetings are very different, too.

The World Economic Forum in Davos is an annual global jamboree attended by the great and the good, but the Boao Forum has a special significance because of its focus on China and the Chinese economy. It’s more like the US Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the focus is on the United States.

There is no more important time than the present to be looking at the Chinese economy, as US President Donald Trump’s trash talk on trade continues apace. The markets were spooked by some serious falls on the announcement of the first likely Trump tariff proposals. These were followed by Chinese retaliatory tariffs, and then a further US retaliation to the retaliation.

“Ya, boo, sucks” is not the finest way to conduct international diplomacy so most observers, including myself, who were watching President Xi Jinping expected that he would take the moral high ground, be reasonable and statesmanlike and would be shocked at the thought that there should be any restriction in globalisation or trade (that has served China particularly well). A positive comparison to Trump’s emotional approach was an easy shot.

Xi played the part perfectly – but there was a twist. He came out with an unexpectedly conciliatory manner, spending the first third of his speech appearing to talk to his own constituency at home in China about the need for domestic economic reform. Almost as if he was campaigning for election.

This is an important turning point. It is now 40 years since China opened up as a very poor developing economy, when other nations were prepared to give the country a huge amount of slack. Hundreds of millions of people spent two generations working to get out of poverty. China is now a major developed economy of global stature. Xi is perhaps the first president to recognise that China is way past being a developing teenager and now has to act its age on the world stage.

Xi is perhaps the first president to recognise that China is way past being a developing teenager and now has to act its age on the world stage

The size of the economy means that China is now not only a major economic trading partner but also an opponent and indeed adversary in world trade. The country can no longer demand a free ride. Yet barriers to imports and foreigners, more akin to a developing country, still exist.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The View | At Boao, Xi Jinping shows the world a grown-up China amid trade war threats

The View | At Boao, Xi Jinping shows the world a grown-up China amid trade war threats