#China’s Xi warns against ‘New Cold War’ in keynote address

​Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned ​in​ his virtual keynote address to world leaders at Davos on Monday against beginning a “new Cold War” in remarks that appeared​ to be a shot aimed at President Biden, who has spoken of strengthening global alliances​ to counter Beijing’s growing influence.​

“To build small cliques or start a new Cold War, to reject, threaten or intimidate others … will only push the world into division,” Xi said during his speech Monday, the first day of the World Economic Forum.  

“We should build an open world economy … discard discriminatory and exclusionary standards, rules and systems, and take down barriers to trade, investment and technological exchanges,” Xi said in his first address to the forum since 2017.

And in reference to former President Donald Trump, who challenged China on trade​, human rights and its botched response to the coronavirus,​ Xi decried confrontation, saying it  “will always end up harming every nation’s interests and sacrificing people’s welfare.”​

Biden did not attend the forum, deciding instead to send his ​climate czar John Kerry, while he pushes for his legislative agenda in the first days of his administration. ​

Xi called on the G-20 nations and the European Union to strengthen their bonds to serve as the “main forum for global economic governance” and for closer economic cooperation between countries. 

He also confirmed that China plans to cut carbon emissions by 65 percent by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060 – even as China emits a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases.

“Meeting these targets will require tremendous hard work from China. But we believe that when the interests of the entire humanity are at stake, China must step forward, take action and get the job done,” ​Xi said.

With Post wires