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DAVOS, SWITZERLAND—There is trouble brewing in China that may cause a global depression, the influential investor and philanthropist George Soros told attendees at a private dinner on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
While China and Russia are notable absences from this year’s gathering—Russia banished for its invasion of Ukraine and the Chinese held at home by severe anti-Covid policies—they were the primary target of Soros’ speech, a fixture of the annual conference of global business and political leaders.
Soros said that China’s harsh response to a resurgence of coronavirus cases with a “zero Covid” policy have pushed the world’s second-largest economy into free fall. Unless President Xi Jinping reverses course, which Soros views as a near-impossibility, this will only gather momentum, the 91-year old said. The damage, piled on top of a crisis in China’s debt-laden real estate sector, will be so bad that it will affect the world economy, he said.
“With the disruption of supply chains, global inflation is liable to turn into global depression,” Soros said.
Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with their “alliance that has no limits,” stand at the center of what Soros says is the greatest threat to open society and the West. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be the beginning of a Third World War, he said, asking for continued support from the U.S. and Europe to bring the conflict to a close so as to refocus global efforts on fighting climate change.
“We must mobilize all our resources to bring the war to an early end,” the survivor of Nazi terror said. “The best and perhaps only way to preserve our civilization is to defeat Putin as soon as possible.”
His words ring true at the conference, where key issues like sustainability and climate action seem to have taken a back seat to the conflict on Europe’s borders and its knock-on effects, such as a global food crisis.
On the main promenade in the Swiss alpine resort town that plays host to the global elite each year, the former Russia House has been renamed Russia War Crimes House. The building, which once represented the influence of Russian oligarchs, is now home to an exhibition of alleged atrocities in Ukraine.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]