Davos is expected to be attended by senior American officials including Trade Representative Katherine Tai, climate envoy John Kerry and Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, according to a statement from the US embassy in Switzerland and Liechtenstein on Friday.
In recent years, Beijing has used the event to reaffirm its commitment to further opening up its markets and economic globalisation and has also hit out at what it called Washington’s “protectionist” and “isolationist” policies.
At Davos in 2020, then vice-premier Han Zheng – who was also a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee – pledged further access to the Chinese market for foreign businesses.
Han met a handful of business leaders during the trip, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook and then Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser.
Three years earlier, President Xi Jinping had attended the meeting, when he reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to integrate with the world economy and live up to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Xi delivered virtual speeches at Davos in 2021 and 2022.
Liu previously attended the meeting in 2018, before he was named vice-premier that March. In 2019, China sent Vice-President Wang Qishan to the event.
In May last year, China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua led a Chinese delegation at the meeting, whose agenda was heavily focused on the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at Davos in May and has said he will do so again next week.
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Liu is widely seen as Xi’s most trusted economic aide and has in the past five years overseen a huge portfolio – from the hi-tech drive to broader industrial policies – as one of China’s four vice-premiers. He has also been involved in trade talks with the US.
The 70-year-old stepped down from the Politburo – the decision-making body led by Xi – at the ruling Communist Party’s national congress in October.
That means Liu is also likely to step down as vice-premier, a vacancy expected to be filled by He Lifeng, the current director of the National Development and Reform Commission who was promoted to the Politburo.
It is unclear whether Liu would retain any ceremonial government position after an expected reshuffle of the top jobs in March.
He will attend the Davos meeting at a time when Beijing has abandoned its zero-Covid policy after three years and is seeking to shift the focus back to economic growth.
It also comes as both Beijing and Washington – amid their worst tensions in decades – have signalled a willingness to contain their differences. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit China early this year – his first such trip since he was sworn in as the top US diplomat.
