China's fragility feeds the doom-mongers in Davos

This time round, Xi, who has not left China since the coronavirus pandemic erupted two-and-a-half years ago, did not even dial in for a Zoom call.

For the cohorts of corporate titans and policymakers traveling to Davos to read the runes on whether the next recession is just about to break, his absence was ominous. The conversation has shifted dramatically from wary appraisals of China’s strength to borderline panic about its fragility.

Xi’s heavy-handed “Zero COVID” strategy has triggered serious discomfort among Western businesses. The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates the lockdown stands to chomp an annualized aggregate of 6 percent off Shanghai’s economic output, plunging China’s leading port city into recession and causing Beijing to undershoot its overall gross domestic product target.

Those kinds of numbers are setting off tremors worldwide...