Emotional send-off for Xi shows confidence in country's future

UK shows how West must be open to business with China

A consultant talks with a visitor over the weekend at the 2015 China Education Expo in Beijing. About 600 schools from more than 40 countries and regions took part in the exhibition. China-UK education cooperation was among the outcomes of President Xi Jinping's visit last week. WANG ZHUANGFEI/ CHINA DAILY

There were emotional scenes as President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, waved while their limousine swept out of Albert Square in Manchester at the conclusion of their weeklong state visit to the UK.

Thousands of Chinese, many of them local students, surrounded the square in front of the city's town hall, a symbol of Britain's Victorian industrial power, where the couple had just had lunch with civic leaders. They shouted, "Xi Dada! Xi Dada", a term of endearment, referring to him as uncle.

This was no manufactured nationalism, as some of the British media had suggested, but reflected both a youthful nationalism and a confidence in the new direction of the country.

Apart from South African president Nelson Mandela nearly two decades ago, you would have to go back to perhaps 1977 to witness such crowd scenes for a foreign leader's visit. It was then that US president Jimmy Carter famously ventured to another northern English city - Newcastle upon Tyne.

Xi's visit was a redefining one in many ways. With agreement on about 30 billion pounds ($45.94 billion) of investment in major projects including nuclear power and high-speed rail, the UK was making the statement that the West had to be open to business with China.

The United States' closest ally was also sending a message that the world has now changed fundamentally, that you cannot ignore China's rise to be the world's second-largest economy, but should instead embrace and work with China, and that the UK was going to lead the way with a new "golden era" of relations.

The latest issue of The Economist magazine makes clear this is considered a brave move. "Rarely has a visiting head of state been granted such a tour - but then rarely has a British government staked so much on one relationship," it concluded.