Ambassador Zheng Zeguang attends and addresses the Sino-UK Financial Education Symposium

On 10 July 2025, Chinese Ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the Sino-UK Financial Education Symposium in London. Li Min, Secretary General of the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA), Michael Lawrence, Asia House CEO, and Sir David Quarry, Member of Board of Asia House and Group Head of Public Affairs HSBC, also delivered remarks. Representatives from the financial, educational, and think tank sectors in China and the UK attended the opening ceremony and participated in thematic discussions.

Ambassador Zheng pointed out that the world economy is increasingly marked by instability and uncertainty. The tariff war and trade war started by the United States have severely undermined WTO rules and the multilateral trading system, disrupted the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, and jeopardised the global economy and the interests of all countries. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. The international community must strengthen unity and cooperation, uphold true multilateralism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and safeguard the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core and the international system with the United Nations at its core.

Ambassador Zheng noted that despite the challenging and complex external environment, China stays the course of high-quality development. The Chinese economy has demonstrated strong resilience and a positive momentum. This year is the final year in China's 14th Five-Year Plan. Over the last four years and more, China's economic strength has grown significantly, with a projected GDP increase of 35 trillion yuan ($4.88 trillion), equivalent to approximately 3.6 trillion pounds ($4.86 trillion) at the current exchange rate. Remarkable achievements have been made in technological innovation. China has developed its own high-performance chips and operating systems, large-scale AI models empowering thousands of industries, and robots that significantly enhance production efficiency. Green industries have become new growth drivers. Electric vehicle and renewable energy technologies are developing rapidly. Energy consumption per unit of GDP has decreased by 11.6 percent over the past four years. High-standard opening up has deepened. Restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector have been eliminated, and restrictions in agriculture and services have been further relaxed. From 2021 to May this year, cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into China reached 4.7 trillion yuan. China has become an ideal, safe and promising investment destination for foreign businesses.

Ambassador Zheng highlighted the immense potential for China-UK cooperation in finance and education. Bilateral trade has remained over 110 billion pounds for several years running, and two-way investment stock over 130 billion pounds. Cooperation in green finance is making rapid progress. In April , the Chinese government issued 6 billion yuan in green sovereign bonds on the London Stock Exchange. Educational cooperation has become a driving force in bilateral ties. There are over 200,000 Chinese students in the UK, making China the largest source of international students in the UK. Between 2013 and 2024, up to 50,000 UK students undertook long and short-term studies in China. More recently, nearly 1,200 secondary school students from 62 UK schools are in China for an exchange program. China welcomes more British students on exchange and study tours.

Ambassador Zheng stressed that China and the UK should implement the important common understandings reached by their leaders, uphold mutual respect, openness and inclusiveness, focus on cooperation, and eliminate distractions, in a bid to create a better environment for wider cooperation in finance, education and other fields. It is hoped that people of vision from all sectors in China and the UK will continue to support and participate in bilateral exchanges and cooperation, foster new paradigms, make new achievements, and bring greater benefits to the people of both countries.