Business leaders in UK hail openness
Business leaders in the United Kingdom have expressed optimism about China's environment for foreign investors and applauded its commitment to opening-up, especially amid the turbulent geopolitical landscape challenging trade and investment.
Many commented on the situation on Friday at the UK session of the 2025 "Invest in China" promotional conference, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
The event in London brought together more than 300 representatives of corporations including HSBC, Smith & Nephew, Haleon and AstraZeneca.
Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, said: "Today's conference is really significant. It's a beacon of light, frankly, in an otherwise very difficult landscape for trade and investment."
Burnett said that "tariffs and protectionism have gained favor" in a world "that has otherwise done so well from free and fair trade and from commercial investment decisions".
Business had previously been "allowed to get on with what business does best, which is to meet customer needs with products that serve a purpose at a fair and reasonable price point, and the interference is not needed to control that process", he added.
Burnett highlighted a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and representatives of the international business community in late March, which he praised as a "clear outreach" that shows China is a welcoming economy committed to its reform and opening-up policy.
Inspiring confidence
"It inspires confidence for businesses to continue growing in China and to make more investment," he said. "International businesses make a net profit margin of 8 to 9 percent in China, which is probably better than they do in many, many other locations around the world, and we should be grateful for that opportunity."
Jack Perry, chairman of the 48 Group, a London-based organization dedicated to promoting Sino-British economic cooperation, echoed Burnett, saying the synergy at the event was a "live demonstration" of high-quality development and high-level opening-up, terms that he said "perfectly describe what China is implementing and what forward-thinking UK businesses are ready for".
"We're doing this at a time when global winds aren't exactly common," he said. "Recent tariffs and escalation in the United States have sent ripples through the global economy … but one nation's anxiety doesn't rewrite the global script.
"The world doesn't stop moving forward because one person wants it to go back. Long-term partnerships built over decades do not vanish with the headline, which is why this moment matters."
Nathan McNally, co-founder and CEO of P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator, a program that supports precision medicine startups in scaling up, said his on-the-ground experience suggests China is "very open and very welcoming".
The scale of the resources and capabilities there attracted him to set up an innovation center in Beijing, which began operation last year and aims to promote China-UK cooperation in precision medicine.
Amer Sayed, founder and CEO of Aviation Education Pathways, an aviation consultancy, told China Daily he is considering establishing a presence in China because he believes the market that connects aviation talents with training courses and industry opportunities is largely untapped.
