Climate, Communism, and CBDCs: The Worst of World Economic Forum Summer 2023

Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP

As the insidious World Economic Forum’s (WEF) summer conference in China comes to an end, it’s clear that it was a festival of all the most woke and anti-freedom ideas from the globalist elite.

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The trend of this summer conference—Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC)—was explicitly authoritarian, which is not surprising considering it took place in China, which is ruled by the ultra-authoritarian and mass-murdering Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The WEF conference pandered to the CCP, including featuring the titular CCP head of government, Premier Li Qiang, as an opening speaker. Listening to WEF’s Klaus Schwab describe Li Qiang, one would think the latter a champion of innovation and rights instead of a top official of the most murderous government in history. Who cares about Uyghurs or religious and political dissidents? WEF is focused on building a world where you “own nothing, have no privacy and enjoy it.” And the CCP is certainly an expert on that.

As part of AMNC, WEF released report on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). WEF previously laid out its plan for a digital ID tied to money, a China-like social credit score. Such a digital ID would be required for activities including travel, owning and using electronic devices, shopping, social media, voting, and healthcare treatment and insurance. Did you call a biological man “he” instead of “she” on Twitter? Did you attend an event not approved by the government? No shopping or healthcare for you. The new summary:

The exploration of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) has gained significant momentum worldwide. With over 100 countries actively engaged in CBDC research and development, there is growing recognition of CBDCs as transformative tools in the future of digital payments. To ensure successful implementation and promote interoperability, global coordination becomes paramount.

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If you thought getting canceled on Twitter for questioning Covid lockdowns was bad, wait until you can’t get a life-saving surgery or buy a plane ticket because you questioned the government on Facebook. That’s how it already works in China, AMNC’s host country, after all. Perhaps this is why Hertie School “Professor of Ethics and Technology” Joanna Bryson rejoiced that “populism” supposedly went down globally during COVID-19 (except in the U.S., she noted). People must trust their governments as benevolent dispensers of good, according to her.

I already highlighted the emphasis on toxic and inefficient “green” energy at AMNC. That woke climate narrative continued throughout AMNC. For example, Swiss Re Managing Director Lubomir Varbanov wants “one global standard for sustainability reporting.” Because this time, after 50 years of failed climate change predictions, the climate alarmists are finally right about imminent catastrophe. WEF even claimed that China is taking “a giant leap towards decarbonization,” even as China—by far the world’s biggest polluter—increases its coal mining and dumps trash in the ocean.

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The panel on artificial intelligence (AI) furnished quite a few examples of exactly what’s pernicious about WEF and its conferences. “China is good because most hospitals are owned by [the] government,” laughed Chinese Neusoft Corporation Chairman Liu Jiren. Thus the CCP can force hospitals, for instance, to use AI. Why would state ownership by the CCP, the world’s greatest mass murderer, be a positive? Yet University of California Berkeley business professor Olaf Groth, who moderated the panel, approvingly agreed, “Yes, it starts with the government mandates.”

Perhaps most telling, Prof. Joanna Bryson touted the alleged decline of populism during the COVID-19 pandemic everywhere but the U.S. as a good thing. She confessed that government will have to “benefit” people or people “will find out,” (how dare they!) but she excitedly added, “Do you know, during the pandemic, populism actually dropped in every country—except the U.S., for some reason—but by and large, people could see that their governments were doing something…there’s a big problem, the government is helping me.”

Ah, yes, so helpful. We had the lockdowns that did exponentially more harm than good. We had the vaccines that did not stop the spread of COVID and that cause all kinds of other severe and even deadly conditions. Children lost at least a year of schooling and possibly suffered permanent developmental delays from masking. Such a wonderful government success! “The governments are doing things for us,” Bryson happily announced.

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University of California Berkeley business professor Olaf Groth, who moderated the panel, asked Neusoft Corporation Chairman Liu Jiren about how to implement AI in healthcare using China’s model. Groth concluded after Jiren’s reply that government needs to work directly with doctors.

Mind you, AI is used in China to surveil and target people, and China’s healthcare system is a socialist mess. That’s predictable—government should stay out of healthcare. Not according to Groth, however; he wants the rest of the world to have government-mandated medical AI, just like China.

Groth sighed later on, “Not everybody is as advanced as Rwanda or China on this matter…it’s a shining example, Rwanda is.” As advanced as two countries with corrupt dictators? As advanced as two top-down tyrannies? As advanced as the country with arguably the worst censorship and surveillance regime in the world (CCP)? Bryson condescendingly explained also that the U.S. shouldn’t be worried about digital “compliance” with government, because it actually “helps” industries like the banking industry.

Of course, knowing how destructive government collusion was in suppressing free speech online, and how the federal government is now weaponized against political opponents, it’s no wonder Americans distrust our government to be the “solution” to AI problems.

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But WEF wants to create a world where you can’t even cook or buy groceries without government approval, or even direct government assistance. They want the whole world to become like the dictatorial nightmare of China under the CCP. And that’s ultimately what AMNC demonstrated so clearly.

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