Opinion | China’s economy isn’t opening. It’s closing – and it’s hurting itself

His speech at the forum, which is often referred to as “Asia’s Davos”, follows his widely lauded address to the World Economic Forum (the “real” Davos) in 2017, when Xi with the support of Chinese state media encouraged the world to see China as the new global defender of openness. But away from media events with global CEOs, the reality of Chinese openness appears radically different.

Despite the rhetoric, China remains a closed economy. A February IMF study on measures of trade and investment openness found that China was not only more closed than the average developed economy, but more closed than the average emerging market economy.

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Even the so-called investment negatives list that tells foreigners where they can invest, while shrinking moderately last year, remains sizeable. If not required to have a majority Chinese partner, foreigners remain restricted or prohibited across a wide range of industries, most of which have no national security implications. For a country selling itself as the new leader of openness, there is no indication it is willing to let foreigners in. FDI flows have increased this decade by an average annual rate of just 3.1 per cent compared with 9.2 per cent the previous decade.

Just this week it was announced that all scientific data generated in China would need to be vetted by the government before it could be published. If Beijing is seeking to attract high-quality research and development investment while demanding to control scientific data generated in China, it may want to rethink its openness mantra.