World Economic Forum: Premier Li Qiang plays up China’s economic prospects, hits out at West over ‘de-risking’ calls

Premier Li Qiang played up China’s economic prospects and blamed “the West” for calls on “de-risking” on the first day of the World Economic Forum on Tuesday amid global concerns about the country’s growth outlook.

Li, who gave the keynote speech on Tuesday morning as the three-day “Summer Davos” forum kicked off in the northern city of Tianjin, said China’s economy is on track to achieve its targets, promising to launch “pragmatic and effective policies” to boost growth.

“China’s economic rebound has been in an apparent positive direction since the beginning of this year,” Li told 1,500 foreign-policy makers and business executives at the start of the forum that is focusing on the theme of “entrepreneurship: a driver of the world economy”.