Billionaire philanthropist George Soros, in his speech at the World Economic Forum, underway in Davos, Switzerland, called out the "would-be and actual dictators" leading the world. Soros didn't mince his words and went on an all-out attack against the US President Donald Trump, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Soros' scathing attack on Trump and Modi
In his speech, Soros described US President Donald Trump as "a con man and the ultimate narcissist who wants the world to revolve around him". "When his fantasy of becoming president came true, his narcissism developed a pathological dimension", he further added.
Speaking on Trump's impeachment, the octogenarian businessman said, "he [Trump] has transgressed the limits imposed on the presidency by the Constitution and has been impeached for it". On US-China relations, he said that Trump "is willing to sacrifice the national interests for his personal interests and he will do practically anything to win re-election".
When speaking on nationalism, Soros referred to India. "Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway", he said, whose "most frightening setback" came in India "where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship".
Critical of Xi Jinping
Talking about Chinese dictator President Xi Jinping, Soros said in reference to US-China relations, that he [Xi] is exploiting Trump's weaknesses. Reflecting on Xi's earlier struggles, growing up in rural exile, Soros said, "Xi Jinping has abolished a carefully developed system of collective leadership and became a dictator as soon as he gained sufficient strength to do so".
On widespread restrictions and censorship imposed by communist China on its citizens, the philanthropist said President Xi would "use artificial intelligence to achieve total control over his people". "Since Xi Jinping has centralized power in his hands, China's economic policy has also lost its flexibility and inventiveness", he added.
The Hungarian-born billionaire also pledged $1 billion for a new university network project to battle the erosion of civil society and help promote critical thinking. Termed as 'Open Society University Network (OSUN)', which Soros referred to as "the most important and enduring project of my life and I should like to see it implemented while I am still around", BBC reported.
