Over the last couple of months, the CBI has been working hard to address the question of how the UK should balance its growing trade with China with wider competing political and geo-political factors. Given that bilateral trade has increased fifteen times over the last decade, from £6bn in 1999 to £18bn in 2019, and links with China in trade, tourism and higher education support up to 150,000 jobs, the question at hand is not whether the UK trades with China, but how.
The CBI has been working closely with its members, our international sister business federations, and other UK-based business organisations with interests in China to develop a series of principles for doing business with China.
These principles have been shared with MPs on the China Research Group and have the formed the basis of CBI interventions in the UK media.
Getting the China relationship right will be a significant test for global Britain. China is an increasingly complex society and civilisation, and this presents both risks and opportunities. As home to one-fifth of the world’s population, China is not only an enormous consumer market that UK business cannot turn its back on, but it is also an essential partner in solving global problems such as climate change and health.
The role of business in the UK’s relationship with China will be to bring the economic facts to the table, and to make sure that the implications for UK prosperity are understood by the Government to their fullest extent, so that, in the words of the Prime Minister the UK can pursue with China “a modern and mature relationship, based on mutual respect and recognising China’s place in the world.”
Building bridges in London and Beijing
In addition to crafting these ‘Principles’, the CBI has been working hard in London and Beijing to ensure that the business-to-business relationship remains strong and that British and Chinese businesses can continue to do business fairly and as easily as possible, despite the challenging trading environment in which we find ourselves.
As part of our wider efforts to support business through the disruption brought by COVID-19, the CBI hosted both the British Ambassador to China, Dame Barbara Woodward, and her counterpart, China’s Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, on the CBI’s Daily Coronavirus Webinar, on separate occasions, so that they could provide business with insights on the lessons learnt from China in restarting the economy when coming out of lockdown, and the work the British Government is doing in China to source PPE for the UK and to keep freight routes open to defend the supply chains of British businesses.
The CBI’s Director General, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, also met with incoming British Ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, to stress the need for continuity in the CBI and British governments’ work on restructuring the UK’s trade relationship with China and ensuring the resilience of the supply chains of British firms with interests in China.
Setting out the value of Chinese investment in the UK
Finally, working closely with our members with interests in China, the CBI spent time examining where the greatest Chinese interest lies in the UK’s economy. Attached below, members can find a briefing that seeks to explain the aims and intentions of Chinese investors, where the UK should be seeking to actively attract Chinese investment, and the areas in which it is perhaps fair and necessary to have safeguards in place.