Xi's UK visit illustrates principles for correct state-to-state ties

An indication of the importance Britain attaches to economic relations with China is the way it rejected US advice to boycott the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. China, in turn, is highly interested in using its expertise and finance to invest in British infrastructure projects. Over a fifth of Britain's power generation capacity has to be replaced in the next decade and on a recent trip to China British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced opening of bidding for the projected $17 billion High Speed Two rail link – contracts potentially of great interest to China which now has the world's largest high speed train system with corresponding accumulated expertise.

The opportunities for cultural, educational and 'people to people' exchanges are equally enormous. Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, Harry Potter and other classic and modern British icons are well known and welcome cultural imports in China. Unfortunately Britain's understanding of China lags behind China's understanding of Britain - as China's former Ambassador to Britain Fu Ying remarked: 'there is a lack of authentic and objective information about China in Western societies, compared with what we know in China about the West.'

This applies to culture, where Britain's knowledge of modern Chinese developments, is insufficient but enormous queues for exhibitions such as the British Museum's of the Xi'an terracotta warriors, and events such as the National Gallery's exhibition regarding Qing dynasty Emperors, show deep interest in Chinese classical culture. There was considerable and highly favourable media coverage in Britain of the award of the Nobel Prize for medicine to Tu Youyou. China's rise will therefore produce increasing British knowledge of China's modern achievements.

Regarding education the situation has existed for a long time that there are more Chinese students studying in British universities than from any foreign other country. But a new trend is the rapid rise in teaching of Chinese in British schools. Clearly indicating this it has become a status symbol to declare one's children are learning Chinese. British Chancellor George Osborne recently announced: 'I see it at home in Downing Street every night as my 12-year-old daughter does her Mandarin homework.'

The opportunities for 'win-win' benefits for both countries in numerous fields are therefore enormous.

Unfortunately a few years ago these potential benefits were blocked by ill-judged moves by Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron held a meeting with the Dalai Lama – a person pretending to be a religious figures but who in fact leads a separatist political movement. This was a clear intervention in China’s internal affairs and contrary to Britain's unequivocal recognition of Tibet as part of China. It was rather like de Gaulle’s notorious separatist ‘Vive Le Quebec Libre!’ [Long Live Free Quebec] speech regarding Canada. This meeting, naturally, led to a severe frost in relations – China refused to hold high level meetings for over a year.

Both sides lost from this situation, but as China is a rising economy Britain lost more than China. Fortunately the British government reversed this position, no further meetings were held, leading to warming relations. David Cameron visited China earlier this year and on a recent visit George Osborne declared that Britain wanted to be China's 'best partner in the West.' For Xi Jinping's visit Britain is doing its utmost to roll out the red carpet (literally and metaphorically) in according China’s president the highest possible protocol by inviting him to stay at Buckingham Palace. Clearly Britain is doing everything possible to overcome the previous problems in relations and China is responding to this. Both sides gain as a result.

From going through a difficult period China-Britain relations currently show rather a model of how different countries should interact. It is the differences in economies, not similarities that can make mutual trade and investment so fruitful. The principle of non-interference in internal affairs must be safeguarded on both sides. And as regards cultural and people-to-people interaction the situation was very accurately expressed by China's President:

'civilizations are equal, and such equality has made exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations possible. All human civilizations… have their respective strengths and weaknesses. No civilization is perfect on the planet. Nor is it devoid of merit. No single civilization can be judged superior to another… All achievements of civilizations deserve our respect and must be cherished. History proves that only by interacting with and learning from others can a civilization enjoy full vitality.'

Fortunately these principles are currently informing British-China relations – to the benefit of both countries.

The author is a Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

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