Britain’s Prince William, left, meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
Britain’s Prince William focused his China trip on promoting links between the countries in football and film yesterday, watching students kick balls around with Premier League-trained coaches before attending a movie premiere.
The second-in-line to the throne is on a three-day trip to China on behalf of the U.K. government to open a festival celebrating British creativity and innovation, the first major event in a year of cultural exchange between the countries.
As well as pushing Britain’s creative industries, he is aiming to forge new business relationships between Britain and China.
After arriving in Shanghai on Monday evening, William opened the GREAT festival, which showcases entertainment, design, health care and fashion, and met with Chinese business leaders, including Jack Ma, the English teacher-turned-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Yesterday, the prince toured the exhibits, which involve British companies such as British Airways and Jaguar Land Rover.
He then watched secondary school students take part in a football session with coaches trained by the Premier League as part of a British program and to mark the addition of football to the Chinese school curriculum.
On Monday in Beijing, William met President Xi Jinping and had an animated conversation with him about the sport, according to a report by China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Xi told the prince that China was willing to learn from talented football nations, including England. China has qualified for only one World Cup, in 2002, and its poor performance in international football competitions is blamed on a history of corruption, overly bureaucratic government supervision and a weak youth training system that has seen the numbers of registered youngsters playing the game fall year by year.
Yesterday evening, the prince arrived at the Shanghai Film Museum for the Chinese premiere of “Paddington,” a British-French film, and was greeted by a costumed, life-size version of the fictional bear found at a London train station that the film depicts.
He was then led inside to meet various members of the Chinese and international film world before sitting down for the screening with around 50 local schoolchildren.
Today, William’s China trip winds up in Xishuangbanna in southwest China, where he will visit an elephant sanctuary. Paul Traynor and Louise Watt, Shanghai AP
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