Positive pointer to how to shape a better year

The only thing certain about 2025 is uncertainty. And uncertainty poses the foremost threat to countries’ economic health, which thrives on optimistic anticipations, and deteriorates otherwise.

The revival of the China-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue over the weekend, after its suspension since 2019, was a choice of strategic foresight by the two countries that promises profound mutual benefits.

Under consecutive years of Conservative leadership in the UK, economic and trade relations between the two countries had been hijacked by a “national security” narrative, echoing that of the Joe Biden administration in the United States, resulting in a frosty overall relationship. Even as Chancellor Rachel Reeves of the UK Treasury came to Beijing for the Dialogue, her visit was caricatured by the opposition as a return to “operation kowtow”.

But, unlike her critics back home, Chancellor Reeves and her government colleagues know the need for a “stable, pragmatic” China-UK relationship. While those people accused her of having “fled to Beijing” instead of staying home to address the upheaval in domestic bond markets, her eyes were on the long-term, strategic dividends this critical relationship promises.

In contrast to the Conservatives, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has demonstrated conspicuous pragmatism in its China policy. Chancellor Reeves’ China visit, following that by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in October, and Starmer’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November, is considered a part of the Labour leadership’s efforts to repair strained ties.

In that meeting, the leaders of the two countries agreed that China and the UK share extensive common interests and bear significant responsibilities in addressing global challenges and safeguarding world peace and development. They concurred on the need to strengthen dialogue, enhance mutual understanding and carry out exchanges and cooperation in a wide range of areas.

Despite the clamor about China being a national security threat, the Starmer Cabinet has seen room for cooperating on such subjects as global stability, climate change and the green transition. And these are only some of the most obvious areas of mutual benefit.

Unlike the Conservative marionettes of Washington, the Labour government has a more rational and objective perspective of China’s development and the benefits of cooperation.

“… growth is the number one mission of this government to make our country better off. And that is why I’m in China to unlock tangible benefits for British businesses exporting and trading around the world,” said Reeves.

In an article in The Times, Reeves argued China offers the UK an opportunity to bolster growth. Her country cannot ignore the fact that China is its fourth-largest trading partner, with exports supporting close to half a million jobs in the UK, she wrote. “Choosing not to engage with China is therefore no choice at all,’’ she said.

She brought to China a delegation of British business executives and finance officials, and is taking home a substantial package of “tangible benefits”.

“Overall, this government’s reengagement with China already sets us on course to deliver up to 1 billion pounds of value for the UK economy,” she announced at a news briefing after meetings with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng. Their talks touched upon exchanges in such areas as sustainable finance, capital markets connectivity, pensions and regulatory alignment, trade and investment, as well as market access for goods and services. During which they agreed to remove barriers to investment in areas such as clean technology, life sciences, digital technology and financial services.

In choosing to work with China for common growth rather than erecting further barricades in a bid to “de-risk”, as the US-led exclusionary efforts are euphemistically described, the UK has set a positive example for other countries at the start of what promises to be another tumultuous year.

Editorial, China Daily