CGTN’s Li Jianhua speaks to Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chair of The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC)
Highlight: “We’ve had a difficult time. We’ve had five prime ministers in the UK in almost as many years. We have had a Conservative party, ridden with tensions about attitudes to China. We’ve now got a government that I think, I hope, believe, almost know will be much more pragmatic to China, of course, as every country has to be. They will be protect national security. They will promote our values. But they recognise that Britain and China need each other economically. They need each other commercially, need the cultural relationship, need the educational relationship, need the tourist relationship. So I’m very hopeful that we’re entering, I wouldn’t call it a golden era, but certainly a new era of, pragmatic cooperation. That is win win in both sides interests.”
“We have to pursue our national interests, and we have to realise that national security, which is genuine and must be protected, is not the same as America’s national superiority. There’s a difference. And, so Britain needs to stand up for its own national interests, the interests of our people, working with our European partners and, not succumb to pressure from others.”
CGTN’s Li Jianhua speaks to Stephen Perry, Honorary President of the 48 Group Club
Highlight: “About 15 years ago, everybody wondered why China was building so many roads and highways, but yet had no car manufacturing company. They innovated by creating joint ventures between the foreign car company and the Chinese car companies. They brought together some of the great scientists in China to work out how to make the next generation of car, which, as you know now, is the electric car. Nobody else was thinking of that. China worked out how to make the electric car and operated inside China, and China started exporting their cars because it’s very important to the new energies.
What China is doing is they’re making electric cars for the benefit of the people of China. And, they’re priced at the price that they ought to be to get the attention of the market. That’s standard marketing, whether it’s America or Europe or China. So what the Chinese are doing is offering that. So when the Europeans put out the tariff, what do the Chinese say? Hold on a second. We’ve given you or your car companies a fortune in access to the Chinese market. We didn’t put tariffs on them. You put tariffs on us, we’ll put tariffs on you. And all the car companies in Europe said don’t put the tariffs on. But these rather silly people in the EU bureaucracy following American advice, want to try and make life difficult for China. And it’s involved in a battle with China, which I don’t think it will win.
“The Americans have put the tariffs on, but they’re not going to have any much imports of electric cars. They’re going to carry on with the petrol cars because that’s what they’ve been developing the market for years. So there’s a lack of reality at the moment about Europe’s attitude. The problem for Europe is it wants to act tough like the Americans, and it can’t because it doesn’t have the power, the scale and the imagination. And that’s why Mercedes and people like this have said, no, don’t put the tariffs on because they know that their markets will be impacted as a result.
“The Conservatives developed a new trade policy to become important in Asia. Well, I’ve been saying for a long time that China focussed on Asia. But if you look at it, if we want to be significant in Asia, we’re going to have to have a proper relationship with China. There’s a lot of opportunities for the British government, for the Labour government, to reposition itself with the Chinese. It’ll have to be very careful about how it handles the United States. There are more and more people becoming experienced in the UK about China, but we have to find the roads, to recover that relationship. But it can be done.”
CGTN’s Li Jianhua speaks to Laura Citron, CEO of London & Partners
Highlight: “I think China will remain a very important market for London, for trade and for investment across different asset classes. We’ve talked to there about real estate, but also about financial services and different kinds of technology. And I think that whilst the geopolitics might change, that basic trading relationship will likely endure in some way or other. And I think China continues to be a really important market for London, for tourists and also for students. And so we’re looking forward to continuing to work with our partners in China on that.”
