Let's hope a few days of inhaling Switzerland's pristine air breathes new life into Chinese President Xi Jinping's determination to clean up Beijing's blackening skies.
One of the great paradoxes of China's global influence gaining altitude is that Xi's airplane may have a hard time landing back in Greyjing, as locals call the capital city. In Davos, Xi is hawking China as an alternative to Donald Trump's America, pledging increased innovation and a soft landing. What Xi omits is the Dickensian reality to which he'll return. The environmental cost of fresh stimulus his Communist Party is tossing at a fragile economy is literally in the air.
In mid-December, Xi's government made a big show of demanding that 1,200 factories, including state-run oil refineries, slash production. It's all cosmetic, though. It's only Jan. 18 and already more than 60 mainland cities have issued health alerts, a step many municipal officials only take when they absolutely have to. As analysts at Zero Hedge put it, "another staple of the 'new' Chinese economy are smog alerts following every burst in economic strength driven by 'old economy' manufacturing."