DALIAN, China — Addressing global business and policy leaders at the opening of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, widely known as the “Summer Davos,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang pushed back against rising Western criticism of China’s rapid high-tech expansion on Wednesday, reframing the nation’s technological progress as a shared global benefit rather than a disruptive threat.
In recent months, policymakers across the United States and Europe have grown increasingly vocal about what they frame as unfair competitive advantages held by Chinese high-tech sectors, from artificial intelligence and semiconductors to electric vehicles and renewable energy equipment. Many Western officials have pinned this advantage on large-scale Chinese state subsidies, arguing that the government financial support distorts global markets and undercuts foreign competitors. Even the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development echoed this concern in a June report, noting that expansive state subsidies, including those provided by China, risk skewing global industry dynamics.
Li directly refuted these claims during his plenary address. “There are some people who say that Chinese products are competitive mainly because the Chinese government’s subsidies. That’s not true. The Chinese government is not that wealthy,” he stated. Instead, the premier attributed China’s tech success to two core domestic strengths: the nation’s vast 1.4 billion-person consumer market, which allows companies to rapidly roll out and scale new technologies at mass volume, and the heavy, sustained private investment poured into research and development by Chinese enterprises.
To illustrate his point, Li highlighted two major Chinese tech firms that have faced increasing Western restrictions: telecom giant Huawei and robotics manufacturer Unitree Robotics. Both companies have seen rapid growth in global market share despite facing punitive barriers from Western governments, including their placement on the U.S. Pentagon’s list of alleged military-linked Chinese companies that are barred from securing American defense contracts. Beijing has already issued formal opposition to the latest expansion of this blacklist, which added Unitree and other tech firms earlier this month.
Beyond the subsidy debate, Li addressed growing global anxiety over what some analysts have dubbed “China Shock 2.0” — a narrative that frames China’s booming high-tech exports as a major threat to established advanced economies in North America and Europe. In a direct rebranding, Li argued the current era should instead be recognized as “China Opportunity 2.0.”
“From the global development perspective, ‘China Opportunity 2.0’ means there’ll be broader access to advanced technologies and more widely shared benefits,” Li told the audience. He emphasized that China’s emerging technologies and competitively priced products, from EVs and solar panels to AI systems and industrial robots, do not deliver disruptive shocks to the global economy, but rather expand access and drive growth for partners worldwide. “China’s emerging technologies and products are bringing to the world not shocks, but opportunities,” he added. “Not threats, but empowerment.”
The debate over China’s high-tech expansion comes as multiple Western governments have moved to implement protectionist trade measures targeting Chinese tech and clean energy exports, citing concerns over oversupply and unfair competition. The Summer Davos gathering in Dalian, which draws global business leaders and policymakers each year, provided a high-profile platform for China’s top economic official to lay out the country’s position amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions.
Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing contributed reporting to this article.