The World Economic Forum has succeeded in changing Davos, a small Swiss town once well-known as the home of several ski resorts, into a platform to brainstorm ideas on global issues.
What magic does the 43-year-old non-profit foundation have? Since its inception in 1971, the forum has taken every opportunity to expand its influence as it never stops learning from others' experience in society, politics and business.
The theme for this year -- "The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business" -- exactly sets out the three dimensions of the world's current circumstances, and it is in this context that the focus will be on China.
In the economic dimension, six years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world economy now comes to a turning point.
The U.S. economy, the world's largest, is speeding up recovery while the influence of tapering its monetary stimulus continues to expand. The EU economy, once stuck in the debt crisis, is getting out of recession and starting to grow. Emerging economies, which experienced a post-crisis slowdown in the last two years, are expected to improve amid more uncertainties.
In micro-economy, fortune legends are created every day with new types of games between capitals, markets and high technology, such as wireless Internet.
In the political dimension, policy-makers are pondering how to build a mechanism for better governance and global cooperation, as national hostility, racial tension, regional conflicts as well as unilateralism and minilateralism promoted by some major countries continue to destabilize the world.
In the social dimension, social inequality calls for global reform and reshaping as the world sees a painful contrast between extravagance in developed countries and famine in poor countries, as well as a yawning development gap between the North and the South.
Alongside, new social problems brought about by urbanization, migration and aging of population, lack of educational resources emerged, while gender discrimination, income disparity and environmental deterioration still exist.
In the context of these three dimensions, how China -- the world's most dynamic economy -- lives up to its role in the reshaping of the world and how the world judges its reform will become the focus of Davos 2014.
Historically, on the stage of Davos, China is a latecomer, but a highlight.
From the initial cooperation with the forum in 1979 to the hosting of the first Summer World Economic Forum in 2007, China has played an increasingly important role in the global event and discussions on topics concerning China have also gone further with each gathering of business leaders and political dignitaries.
Davos has witnessed the historic process of China's role change from a listener to a speaker on the global stage. The Asian giant participated in reshaping the world and at the same time got reshaped by a changing world.
In Davos and also other such occasions, China has been thinking about its changing relations with the world.
At the upcoming conference from Wednesday to Saturday, participants will focus on the Chinese economy changing its track of high-speed growth to moderate, but more wholesome development; They will assess the catalytic effect of China's financial reform on the country's systematic overhaul and deliberate the global benefits that could come with China's further opening-up.
Attendees will also ponder on China's positioning in global economic governance and the consequent impact of that positioning, and debate whether China is a stabilizer or destabilizer, at a time when it is exporting values and its language as well as commercial goods.
In a bigger landscape that has both historical and global dimensions, China's story of development is helping the emerging power know itself better, and its observation of the world's current and future situation affects the whole world as well.
Source: Xinhua, Editor Fu Peng.
