Forum stresses gains from China-UK trade

Message on 'new energy' from Chinese ambassador resonates at London event

More than 300 political, business, and academic figures from China and the United Kingdom on Wednesday attended the 5th China-UK Economic and Trade Forum, where they shared insights on Sino-British cooperation.

The forum was held in person for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020.

Zheng Zeguang, China's ambassador to the UK, gave a comprehensive overview of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, highlighting the significance of the congress to the bilateral relations.

"What does the 20th national congress mean for China's relations with Europe and the UK? I would say it means new opportunities and new energy," Zheng told the gathering in London.

Against the backdrop of global instability and uncertainty, China and Europe should uphold dialogue and cooperation and oppose division and confrontation, he said.

"We should strive for mutual benefits and reject decoupling and disruption of industrial and supply chains," he said.

Fang Wenjian, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, the group that organized the forum, said that based on the chamber's latest survey, Chinese companies in the UK appeared to be recovering well from the challenges of the pandemic.

"I'm immensely proud of the efforts we have made to promote our relationship, which is highly complementary and mutually beneficial," he said.

"We place a high value on continuing to foster closer ties between our two great nations."

Sherard Cowper-Coles, chairman of the China-Britain Business Council, echoed Zheng on the important role of practical business cooperation, dispelling groundless accusations that undermine healthy bilateral ties.

"When our trans-Atlantic friends worry about their intellectual property being stolen, they should go to Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing and see how so many of the technologies of the 21st century were done by Chinese … China is the economic power of the future and we in Britain would be quite mad to decouple from that great power," he said.

Cowper-Coles also cited research commissioned by the business council to point out that trade with China has created nearly 150,000 jobs across the UK, and to note that 75,000 people have been hired directly by more than 800 Chinese companies in the country.

"The 500 million middle-class Chinese consumers like Peppa Pig and the Premier League, want to buy Range Rovers manufactured in Solihull, Burberry coats woven in South Yorkshire, Scotch whisky distilled in our beloved highlands ... They want to buy British," he said."And we need to be part of that great commercial flow in both directions."

Stephen Perry, chair of the 48 Group Club, a nonprofit organization that has promoted China-UK relations through trade and commerce for the past 70 years, said the great dedication of his father and his business colleagues who founded the club in the early 1950s ensured people could go against the tide and engage with China, despite a Western embargo.

"To some extent, that's what we did today," he said. "If we want to be successful as a country, if we want to be global Britain, we will take one thing that is absolutely clear, that Asia is likely to be the most important continent in the next 50 to 100 years in this world," Perry said.

Bilateral trade grew from $300 million in 1972 when China and the UK established ambassadorial diplomatic relations to $112.7 billion last year, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.