Professor Adam Tooze, Director of the European Institute at Columbia University, joins us to look ahead to the action at AMC26 on Day 2 where Premier Li Qiang is due to speak.
Catch up on all the action from World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2026 at wef.ch/amnc26 and across social media using the hashtag #AMNC26.
Links:
AMNC26: https://www.weforumasia.cn/meetings/a...
Liveblog: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/...
Related podcasts:
AMNC26 Day 1 - Taking the pulse of Asia's largest economy, and of the world - https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radi...
AMNC26 - What...
What Adam Tooze said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Adam Tooze discussed the upcoming speech by Chinese Premier Li at AMNC26 in Dalian, noting that the premier's industrial policy speeches have been impressive and that last year's speech hinted at a shift toward stimulating consumption. He highlighted the global focus on China's trade surplus, citing $1.2 trillion in exports and stagnant imports, and questioned Beijing's credibility on boosting domestic consumption given recent data. On Iran, Tooze emphasized the country's economic damage from war, the proposed $300 billion investment fund, and Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, noting that the world economy has survived despite oil prices staying within the $1 to $120 band. He also previewed a panel on feeding the world, stressing the Gulf's role in fertilizer supply and China's agricultural significance. Finally, he defended learning Chinese against AI translation, calling it a metaphor for human connection.
Key takeaways
China's trade surplus is $1.2 trillion, unprecedented in scale, with imports not growing commensurate with exports.
Premier Li's speech may signal a move toward stimulating consumption, but Beijing's credibility is questioned due to lack of measurable effects.
Iran's $300 billion investment fund proposal highlights the economic damage from the war, and Iran's cooperation is needed to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
Global oil prices stayed within the $1 to $120 band despite the Hormuz crisis, showing energy resilience.
Tooze argues that learning Chinese is valuable despite AI translation, as it fosters cultural immersion and human commonality.
It's Wednesday, the 24th of June, 2026, and from the annual meeting of the new champions in Dalian, China, welcome to Radio Davos. Give us 10 minutes, and we'll give you a rundown of what to expect today on day two of the summer Davos. Get it on Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube, and any podcast app, including the Shiau Joe app in China, or on the Forum Live app from the World Economic Forum Summer Davos in Dalian, China. This is Radio Davos Daily and joining me today on day two of the AMNC26 is Adam Tooze. Adam, how are you?
It's great to see you here. You're a historian. You're a podcaster. I'm a big fan of the Ones and Twos podcast from Foreign Policy, which you're recording here as well.
So yes, later today the big, probably the big moment maybe for the whole meeting is the premier, whose name is Lieng, if I'm saying his name anywhere near right. What do you expect him to say?
Well, I've heard him twice, and it is truly a highlight of these meetings. Davos in January every year has a whole roster of senior political speakers. One of the interesting things about the summer forum is that it's so focused on this one speech. And the two that I've heard have been very impressive industrial policy speeches. Essentially, one of the prime minister's roles in the Chinese system is to be more focused on the economy than Xi Jinping is, and to talk about ongoing efforts by China to develop its economy. There were subtle differences in last year's speech which suggested a move towards stimulus of consumption. I think that's what people are going to be looking out for today.
They do. Yeah, yeah. It's essential because the rebalancing of the Chinese economy, I think, is key to many people's understanding of what needs to happen in the world economy. In the West, there's been an extensive debate now over the last 12 months about the theme of global imbalances, which is really code for China's trade surplus. $1.2 trillion, really in scale unprecedented in relative scale relative to the world economy, also as large as we've ever seen. And the backdrop to that is not just the power and force and competitiveness of Chinese exports, but also the relatively tepid, in fact non-growth, in imports. Chinese imports have not been cut. So China is not delivering the kind of negative shock to the world economy that American protectionism has for particular economies. Overall, American imports still remain really powerful. But what we haven't seen is growth in imports commensurate with Chinese overall growth, let alone the surge in its exports. So that's a lot of attention going to be focused on that.
No doubt. No doubt. The prime minister's speech will be read with that in mind. What can you actually say or do though, you know, in intention? We'd like to see more domestic consumption.
I mean, the problem is that this is a matter not so much as crying wolf, but of credibility at this point, because Beijing has been talking for too long about this issue without measurable effects. The latest set of data on Chinese consumption from just a month ago in May do not point in the right direction. So it'll be very interesting to see whether the premier acknowledges this, and if so, what kind of reaction we're going to see. It's genuinely fascinating to see the intensity with which this one speech is read, paused, disassembled, and scanned, because, you know, decision-making in China remains relatively opaque to outsiders in particular.
11 more exchanges in this transcript
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Tooze, A. (2026, June 23). AMNC26 Day 2 - Adam Tooze on Premier Li, and other upcoming highlights [Interview transcript]. World Economic Forum. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1223535/
MLA
Adam Tooze. "AMNC26 Day 2 - Adam Tooze on Premier Li, and other upcoming highlights." World Economic Forum, 23 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1223535/.
BibTeX
@misc{tooze2026_1223535,
author = {Adam Tooze},
title = {AMNC26 Day 2 - Adam Tooze on Premier Li, and other upcoming highlights},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, World Economic Forum. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1223535/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
