Xi Jinping at Davos, Prof. Bill Bowen, China’s Growth, Overseas Power Investments, China-NZ FTA Commentary from the Web, Week 4, 2021

Xi Jinping delivers speech at WEF Davos Agenda 2021 via video link 

New China TV, January 25, 2021.

The consistent theme throughout his speech was multilateralism as a means to global and economic development. Despite China's recent economic rebound from the impacts of COVID-19, exporters across the country are struggling to meet growing demand.

See also David Jessop’s column in the Barbados Advocate, January 31, 2021.

 

China's Transformation, Interview with Prof. Bill Brown, Part 1 and Part 2

CGTN Youtube video, May 25, 2019.

During the past four decades, the world has witnessed China’s transformation – a swift economic rise, the uplifting of hundreds of millions out of poverty, and an opening up to the rest of the world. But what’s it been like to witness these changes from inside China and through the eyes of a foreigner? We talk to one of the first foreigners who witnessed the transformation from the inside of China, American professor Dr. Bill Brown. Brown was the first foreigner to become a permanent resident in Fujian Province, where he’s lived for more than three decades. 

 

Takeaways from China’s remarkable economic growth numbers

According to official statistics and analysts, China might have been one of the only major countries to see economic growth in 2020 after taking a hit from COVID-19 early in the year. That growth streak, even during a pandemic, has continued into January 2021.

Frida Qi, SupChina, Published January 27, 2021.

 

Renewables now a majority of China’s overseas power investments
China pours money into green Belt and Road projects / FT (paywall), SupChina, January 26, 2021.
“The share of wind, solar and hydropower made up 57%, or about $11bn, of China’s total investment in energy infrastructure in 2020, up from 38% in 2019, according to research from the International Institute of Green Finance at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing…[but] coal investments took up a larger portion of China’s $20bn total of energy investments, up from 15 percent in 2018 to 27 percent last year.”

 

New Zealand upgrades free trade agreement with China, wiping away nearly all tariffs 

The $23 billion annual trade between New Zealand and China could soon be nearly entirely tariff-free, thanks to an upgrade in the two countries’ 2008 free trade agreement.

Lucas NiewenhuisSupChina, Published January 26, 2021