From January 19th to 23rd, the World Economic Forum 2026 Annual Meeting was held in Davos, Switzerland. With the theme of "Spirit of Dialogue", this annual meeting aims to call on the international community to rebuild trust through constructive exchanges and jointly respond to global challenges in the complex and ever-changing international situation.
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is an important platform for discussing global economic trends and promoting cooperation and development. It is known as the "world economic vane". Currently, the world is facing many uncertain and unstable factors, and global economic growth is weak. Faced with many risks and challenges, where is the future for the global economy?
Globally disruptive risks continue unabated
According to the official website of the World Economic Forum, discussions at this annual meeting center on five key global challenges: cooperation in a competitive world, unlocking new growth drivers, investing in talent, using innovation responsibly, and creating prosperity within the carrying capacity of the planet.
It is reported that nearly 3,000 representatives from different fields from more than 130 countries and regions around the world participated in this annual meeting. "Global turmoil enveloped the largest Davos forum in history." The BBC reported.
On the eve of the opening of the annual meeting, the World Economic Forum released a series of reports pointing out that multilateralism continues to face strong headwinds, and the pattern and situation of global cooperation are changing. Although the world economic outlook has improved slightly, uncertainty remains. Factors such as asset revaluation, debt accumulation, reshaping of geo-economic structure and risks brought by the application of artificial intelligence technology continue to affect the global economy.
The "Global Risks Report 2026" released by the World Economic Forum further pointed out that geoeconomic confrontation will become the primary risk in 2026, followed by armed conflicts between countries, extreme weather, social polarization, and misinformation and disinformation. The report shows that the current global destructive risks continue unabated, which worries the world.
"Dialogue in an era of uncertainty." Saudi Arabia's Arab News recently reported that a series of pressing geopolitical challenges have become important topics at the World Economic Forum's 2026 annual meeting. From the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, multiple conflict points have intensified people's concerns about the escalation of larger-scale regional tensions.
Bolger Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, recently pointed out that the most worrying thing at present is that the escalation of large-scale wars may stifle global economic growth.
Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Institute of International Trade and Economics of the Ministry of Commerce, analyzed in an interview with this newspaper that currently, the global economy is mainly facing three risks: First, anti-globalization thoughts and actions are becoming increasingly widespread, trade protectionism and populism are rising, and economic globalization and regional economic integration are encountering countercurrents; second, global economic governance is increasingly disordered, especially the frequent "retreat" of the United States. "Group" has led to the disorder of trade governance, investment governance, and financial governance at the global level, and the impact on global supply chain value chain collaboration continues to appear; third, geopolitical conflicts occur frequently, and a series of events such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the U.S. raid on Venezuela, and the recent tensions surrounding Greenland have posed serious threats to global commodity supply and global market stability.
"At present, global confrontations are intensifying, dialogue is lacking, and tariff and non-tariff barriers are rising sharply. This is an important background that makes the World Economic Forum's 2026 Annual Meeting different from the past." Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, pointed out to this newspaper that as the world's major changes unseen in a century accelerate, the pattern of international cooperation and competition has undergone profound and complex changes. , geopolitical conflicts, geoeconomic confrontation, social polarization, extreme weather and other multiple risks are intertwined. In particular, the United States has imposed so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on many countries around the world, promoted so-called "friendly-shoring" and "near-shoring outsourcing", and even further transformed it into localization, artificially dividing the global production and supply chain, resulting in a slowdown in global trade growth, pressure on the global division of labor system, and weakening of the functions of the multilateral trading system. The global economic growth momentum is weak, policy space has narrowed, and it has fallen into a mid- to long-term dilemma of low growth, high debt, and weak investment.
Constructive dialogue is a key factor in promoting cooperation
Recently, the United Nations released the "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2026" report, which pointed out that the global economy has shown certain resilience in a complex environment, but rising trade tensions, fiscal pressures and uncertainties are continuing to affect medium- and long-term growth prospects. The report predicts that global economic growth will be 2.7% in 2026, lower than 2.8% in 2025.
United Nations Secretary-General Guterres said that the current global economy is in a critical period of multiple challenges. Strengthening multilateral cooperation and maintaining the rules-based multilateral trading system are crucial to stabilizing the global economy and promoting sustainable development.
Su Qingyi, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the global economic outlook is hardly optimistic. Although technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence have a stimulating effect, unpredictable and uncertain events may increase, thereby affecting global economic growth.
In the face of risks and challenges, dialogue and cooperation are particularly important. "In the view of the World Economic Forum, dialogue is not a luxury, but a necessity." Brende said that in a world of fragmentation and increasing competition, it is crucial to ensure dialogue, because dialogue is the beginning of a benign process and helps promote world progress.
The "Global Cooperation Barometer 2026" recently released by the World Economic Forum shows that although multilateralism continues to face headwinds, global cooperation still shows a certain degree of resilience. The report said that cooperation continues to advance as flexible, small alliances are able to act based on common interests and achieve pragmatic goals. The report emphasizes that in a more complex and uncertain geopolitical environment, open and constructive dialogue is a key factor in identifying potential cooperation paths that can promote common interests.
"With the intensification of geopolitical conflicts and geoeconomic conflicts, international trade, as an important engine of global economic growth, is facing the risk of stalling, and international investment is also in a state of contraction. Against this background, there is an urgent need for countries around the world to solve problems through dialogue rather than confrontation." Liu Ying believes that the global economy The way out for the economy does not lie in a zero-sum game in which you lose and I win, but in strengthening dialogue between major powers and North-South dialogue to build consensus and find ways to cooperate, thereby preventing conflict spillovers in the short term, promoting mutual recognition of technologies and rules among countries in the medium term, and improving the international multilateral governance structure in the long term.
"In 2026, the global economy will face many uncertainties, market fluctuations and other pressures. Countries need to work hard to overcome the negative impact of anti-globalization, maintain the multilateral trading system, persist in promoting economic globalization and international regional cooperation, and persist in deepening collaboration in global supply chains and value chains. Only by giving full play to the different comparative advantages and development of each country Only by developing potential can global trade in goods, services and global economic growth be steadily promoted." Zhang Jianping pointed out that as an important platform that brings together heads of governments, senior political officials, business leaders and think tank scholars from around the world, the World Economic Forum plays an important role in supporting global economic cooperation and sustainable development.
China provides a "stabilizing anchor" for the global economy
As the world's second largest economy, China's role in global economic governance, green development and digital innovation has received continued attention from the international community during this annual meeting.
Brende believes that China's cutting-edge science and technology field is accelerating growth, and companies are doubling their investment in this field. These new technologies are expected to bring huge productivity gains and growth opportunities in the coming years. "This is why a year ago we were more pessimistic about global economic growth and now we are more optimistic. China is an important driver of this process."
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the eve of the opening of the 2026 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting that China looks forward to working with all parties participating in the meeting to strengthen dialogue and exchanges, build consensus on cooperation, practice true multilateralism, jointly build an open world economy, promote more inclusive, universally beneficial and resilient global development, and inject more stability and positive energy into the world economy.
Zhang Jianping pointed out that China attaches great importance to and supports the World Economic Forum. It has not only established a good cooperation mechanism with the forum, but also fully utilized the role of this platform to promote the implementation of the four major global initiatives proposed by China. At the same time, it supports the development of the WTO reform in the right direction and promotes economic globalization and regional economic integration. "On the platform of the World Economic Forum, China's international influence continues to increase, and more Chinese voices are heard in the global development process."
Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released the performance of China’s national economy in 2025. In 2025, China's economic development will be new and better, and the expected goals will be successfully achieved. Preliminary calculations show that China's GDP is 140,187.9 billion yuan, jumping to a new level of 140 trillion yuan for the first time. Calculated at constant prices, it increased by 5.0% over the previous year.
Su Qingyi pointed out that China provides a "stabilizing anchor" for the global economy. In particular, China's implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand will help expand imports and provide opportunities for other countries. At the same time, China continues to expand its opening-up, helping to hedge against the wave of anti-globalization. China's voice has attracted more and more attention from the international community, and it also helps to convey the voice of openness and cooperation and inject certainty into the global economy as much as possible.
"China is implementing more proactive macro policies, including implementing more proactive fiscal policies and moderately loose monetary policies, giving full play to its ultra-large market advantages, releasing dividends from industrial upgrading, and continuously enhancing economic resilience through coordinated policy efforts. Nowadays, whether from the perspective of market demand or in innovative development fields such as artificial intelligence and digital economy, China has a strong impact on the global economy. Liu Ying believes that more importantly, China is determined to be a provider of global public goods, promote connectivity, share development and governance experience, and inject valuable stability and positive energy into the global economy through high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" and other international multilateral cooperation mechanisms.
