It was the first time the text of his speech had been published (more than two years after it was delivered), and the timing was fascinating.<\/p>\n
It was released a few days after the latest batch of documents in the Epstein files was released in the United States, and people around the world were reeling from the disgusting revelations those documents contained about the behaviour of the global Epstein class.<\/p>\n
Millions more ‘Epstein files’ released by US government<\/a><\/p>\n The US Department of Justice says it is releasing more than 3 million new documents from the “Epstein files”.<\/p>\n It will take years for the social ramifications to be felt from this event, now that so many people are learning how members of Epstein’s circle have occupied the most powerful positions in the West for decades across government, finance, the law, the media, academia, the arts, sport, and in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n Many of them were our political and cultural “leaders”.<\/p>\n It has become common in recent years to hear people lamenting the disappearance of shared cultural experiences in the age of social media, since we’re no longer sitting down at the same time every night to watch the latest Seinfeld or Sopranos episode on TV, and so many big music festivals have died, and so on.<\/p>\n But shared experiences haven’t disappeared.<\/p>\n In the 2020s, our major shared experiences have been consecutive waves of trauma.<\/p>\n We shared the trauma of COVID and the lockdowns in 2020. The destructive global surge in inflation. We have all watched the grotesque slaughter in Gaza and Ukraine on our phones. Now we’re all reading putrid revelations in the Epstein files together.<\/p>\n What impact will these shared traumatic cultural events have on our societies?<\/p>\n Liberal democracies rely on citizens having a baseline level of trust in their leaders, courts, and cultural institutions, and a shared belief that we cherish the same collection of values. Obliterate that trust and see what forces you unleash.<\/p>\n Now is the time of monsters.<\/p>\n Renminbi to challenge the dominance of the US dollar<\/p>\n That’s the context in which Chinese authorities released a transcript<\/a> of Mr Xi’s speech last week (along with some commentary<\/a>).<\/p>\n The speech revealed Mr Xi’s ambition to make the renminbi a global reserve currency to challenge the dominance of the US dollar.<\/p>\n But significantly, Mr Xi is not making a simple economic argument to support his ambition. He’s making a moral argument too.<\/p>\n Canadian PM Mark Carney speaks out against Trump in Davos<\/a><\/p>\n Canadian PM Mark Carney says “middle powers must act together”.<\/p>\n Firstly, he said he wants China to become a “financial powerhouse”.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said he wants a strong currency which is widely used in international trade and investment and foreign exchange markets, “with the status of a global reserve currency”.<\/p>\n He wants “a strong international financial centre” which can attract global investors and influence the international pricing system.<\/p>\n And he wants strong financial supervision, sound financial rule of law, and a “strong voice and influence in the formulation of international financial rules”.<\/p>\n “Although China is already a major financial country, the world’s largest in terms of bank volume and foreign exchange reserves, the second largest in the world in terms of bond market and stock market, and the scale of insurance is also among the best, but overall it is large but not strong,” he said.<\/p>\n “Building a financial power requires long-term efforts.”<\/p>\n But to achieve that goal, he said, the nature and culture of Chinese finance would have to be very different to other countries.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping shook hands after a bilateral meeting in South Korea, in October last year. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)<\/p>\n Without saying it explicitly, he said the guiding philosophy of Chinese finance had to be the opposite of Wall Street (as people like Arnaud Bertrand<\/a> have noted).<\/p>\n “The financial undertaking led by our Party is ultimately meant to benefit the people, which is fundamentally different from the nature of finance in some countries, which serves capital and a small number of wealthy individuals,” Mr Xi said.<\/p>\n “To promote high-quality financial development and build a financial power, we must adhere to the combination of the rule of law and moral governance.<\/p>\n “We must be honest and trustworthy … the excellent traditional Chinese culture emphasises keeping promises. The financial industry is based on credit, and it is necessary to adhere to the spirit of contract and abide by market rules and professional ethics.\u00a0<\/p>\n US accuses China of secret nuclear tests <\/a><\/p>\n The claim comes as the US calls for China to be involved in a new deal limiting the use of nuclear weapons, after the New START deal expired this week.<\/p>\n “Insist on repaying debts, cherish reputation, and don’t be lazy. It is necessary to strengthen industry self-discipline and ban seriously untrustworthy people for life,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Xi also emphasised the point that China’s financial system had to remain tethered to the real economy, saying it mustn’t become self-referential and mesmerised by abstractions.<\/p>\n “The real economy is the foundation of finance, and finance is the lifeblood of the real economy; serving the real economy is the inherent duty of finance,” he said.<\/p>\n “If it indulges in self-circulation and self-expansion, finance will become water without a source and a tree without roots, inevitably leading to a crisis sooner or later.\u00a0<\/p>\n “My country’s financial system must uphold its duty to serve the real economy and promote high-quality development, and must never deviate from the real economy for speculative purposes,” he said.<\/p>\n And he criticised the culture of pursuing profit above all.<\/p>\n “It is necessary to seek profit with righteousness, not just profit,” he said.<\/p>\n “Finance has the dual attributes of functionality and profitability, and profitability must be subordinated to the function,” he said.<\/p>\n A gift for Chinese propagandists<\/p>\n When the Financial Times reported<\/a> on Mr Xi’s speech last week, it focused on his plan for the renminbi to attain global reserve currency status.<\/p>\n It said nothing about Mr Xi’s veiled criticisms of the financial culture of the West, or of his belief that finance has to remain tethered to the real economy to avoid the consequences of extreme financialisation and the corruption that comes with it.<\/p>\n It was noticeably silent on those points.<\/p>\n How Epstein’s emails have rocked royalty around the world<\/a><\/p>\n The latest release of the Epstein files has revealed the convicted child sex offender was in contact with members of \u2014 and people close to \u2014 monarchies across Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n And again, context is everything. Late last year, JPMorgan Chase was still being hounded<\/a> by US authorities to explain why it had provided banking services to Jeffrey Epstein from 1998 to 2013, which was five years after Epstein had plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.<\/p>\n![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e60e78e6a4f2138fc1a1b0d9bf8e0014.jpeg\")
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