CGTN Europe spoke to Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London.
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00:00Perry, welcome. Good to see you. Put this in a wider context, if you would, then.
00:04How significant is this visit and why this and why now?
00:11Well, I mean, geopolitically, at the moment, China and the United States are going through,
00:16you know, kind of increased uncertainty and turbulence. The new Trump administration looks
00:20like it's gearing up for a second trade war. And so Britain kind of sits in between.
00:27It has its own interests. As your correspondent said, the priority of the current government
00:32in Britain is economic development. There was a little bit of growth last year, to everyone's
00:36surprise. But still, you know, we're in the kind of doldrums. And the world's second biggest economy
00:43is still not a major investor here. It's still not as big an economic partner as it could be.
00:49And on many huge things, we agree on environment, which America is now more and more of an outlier
00:55under Trump. The UK and China basically agree it's a serious issue and they want to do more
00:59about carbon reduction on AI. I mean, the British government and China have been working even under
01:06the previous conservative administration. They were working on issues and risks from this.
01:11So there is quite a lot of common ground. And I mean, the pattern in the last few years is
01:16to recognize that while looking at the problems. I think this government is trying to kind of say,
01:21OK, we've got to actually focus on something even more specific. And that is tangible economic
01:27gains. What might improved relations look like for both countries?
01:35Well, I think pragmatism is the thing that works. There have been some tough years, the pandemic,
01:42Hong Kong, the British attitudes towards geopolitics. Generally, it's become more
01:47insular. Britain is exposed. I mean, of the European Union, it's got to have a bilateral
01:52policy on China. I think a kind of relationship where there are tangible signs of cooperation
01:58success, that looks good. I mean, if there were effective investments either way, which we could
02:05point out and say these bring common benefit and we can all spell that out, that would be good.
02:10In the recent years, that's been few and far between. There was the Chinese investment in
02:13Hinkley Point nuclear power station. But in the end, the government bought that out because of
02:18its security concerns. Huawei was a big investor in Britain. But now because it's not allowed to
02:24be in 5G, that's also off the cards. Electronic vehicles is something where there probably could
02:30be increases, but the Europeans and Americans are concerned. We need something that's very
02:35tangible. Finance might be one area. London is still an important finance center for China and
02:40for the internationalization of the Chinese currency. So I think tangible things are very
02:47important. And at the moment, as your correspondent just said, trade is actually kind of going down
02:52rather than up. I mean, that obviously needs to reverse. There needs to be signs that this is a
02:56relationship where at least things are happening. And how does this UK-China relationship perhaps
03:03then fit into a wider context of a difficult geopolitical landscape?
03:13Obviously, the government in Britain have a very difficult balancing act. The Trump White House is
03:18going to be extremely focused on its somewhat insular definition of what's in America's interest.
03:24I mean, I think America is going to try and approach a deal with China and the Chinese
03:29are probably going to try and do a deal with America. I don't know what that deal would look
03:33like and I don't know how it would be achieved, but they seem to be kind of circling around this
03:37issue now that there's got to be a better deal. The Chinese are tough negotiators. Historically,
03:43we know that because of the experience from Hong Kong. Britain has to be quite nimble and
03:47opportunistic. It has to have a flexible policy. The British have not really had to kind of deal
03:54in this way with China before in a bilateral sense. They tended to do it through the European
03:58Union in the past in terms of trade and values issues. So we really have our work cut out for
04:03us. But then we also have opportunities. As Britain, we can maybe do things in a bit more
04:08kind of creative and inventive way with China. But we basically have to decide on a pragmatic
04:13strategy. We have to be aware that there are always opportunity costs. We can certainly say
04:18we don't want China in certain areas. But then, you know, we can't kind of complain when the
04:23benefits from that come. But we also kind of have to acknowledge that there are areas where
04:28we have to work together, whether we like it or not, and areas where we will get benefit if we
04:32work together better. So clarity about that, absolute clarity, I think is really important.
04:36I think this government, that's what they're trying to achieve. Kerry, thanks very much for
04:40that. Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lao China Institute at King's
04:45College in London.