Chinese premier warns against politicising economic relations

Chinese Premier Li Qiang has rejected the debate about reducing economic dependence on China and instead called for increased cooperation.

At the opening of a World Economic Forum meeting in Tianjin on Tuesday, the premier warned against politicizing economic relations around the world.

“Some in the West are hyping up the so-called phraseologies of reducing dependencies and derisking,’’ Li said.

“These two concepts are false propositions, as economic globalization has already made the world economy an integral whole where everyone’s interests are closely intertwined and countries are interdependent and interconnected with each other,’’ he said.

Politics should stay out of trade, he said. If there are risks in certain industries, companies are in the best position to assess them, Li added.

“They should be left to come to their own conclusion and make their own choice.

“Governments and relevant organizations should not overreach themselves, much less overstretch the concept of risk or turn it into an ideological tool.’’

In spite of the current weakness of China’s economic recovery, Li expressed confidence that the world’s second-largest economy grew 4.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, an improvement on the first quarter.

He also said he expected his government’s target of around 5 percent growth to be met this year.

It was Li’s first appearance at the conference, known as the “Summer Davos’’.

The Chinese conference continues the tradition of winter debates in Davos in the Swiss Alps.

Li has just returned from his first trip abroad, to Germany and France.