On November 22, 2021, Mr. Thomas Burn, Counsellor from British Embassy in Beijing and his colleagues attended the Seminar on China-UK Relations held by Taihe Institute. During the seminar, Mr. Sun Yongfu and Mr. Qian Feng, Senior Fellows of Taihe Institute, Mr. Song Xiaofeng, Secretary-General of Taihe Institute, and Ms. Liu Xian, Deputy Secretary-General of Taihe Institute, exchanged views with the delegation from the British Embassy in Beijing on issues such as the status quo and prospects of China-UK relations in the post-pandemic era, China-UK economic and trade relations, as well as U.S.-UK relations.
At present, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected international exchanges, but with the improvements of the means and measures for the pandemic control, the two sides are optimistic about its prospect and hope that bilateral people-to-people exchanges could restore in the near future.
Since the UK is an important investment partner of China, and the two countries play an important role in the world economic system, both sides should hold regular dialogues and meetings at higher levels in order to fuel the momentum of China-UK economic and trade relations, thus achieving a win-win situation.
In addition, officials and experts from both sides also discussed China’s “dual circulation economy,” where senior fellows from Taihe Institute made it clear that the internal circulation and the external one hold equal value to China, and that China will hold onto its opening-up policy as China has always been a beneficiary of globalization.
The British delegation stated that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the UK should carry out dialogues and continue to cooperate on issues of international concerns in order to provide viable solutions.
China and the UK are long-term trade partners, and there is more room for their bilateral cooperation in fields of science & technology, education, and culture, among others. Looking forward, Taihe Institute will hold more seminars to shed light on more issues of global concerns so as to bridge differences and reach consensus in international exchanges.
