Britain's Ambassador to China Peter Wilson has outlined how the UK can explore new opportunities to take cooperation with China to "new levels" following a recent warming of ties between the two sides, highlighting the potential for collaboration in trade and in advancing the energy transition.
Wilson, who took up his position in the Chinese capital last August, recently attended China's "two sessions" political meetings in Beijing, where he gained key insights into the country's development trajectory and policy goals. The "two sessions" are a major event in China's political calendar, and refer to the annual sessions of the National Political Congress (NPC), the country's supreme organ of state power, and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body.
As an observer, the ambassador was invited to attend the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th NPC at the Great Hall of the People last Thursday, where Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered a government work report which highlighted the country's major new achievements over the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and set out the major development targets for the next five-year planning period spanning 2026 to 2030.
Wilson said this offered him a precious opportunity to directly grasp China's new policies across various sectors for the coming years, which he said are of great significance to the entire world.
"For me, attending the 'two sessions' in person is very important, as I can directly hear about this year's economic growth target and some new policies, including those for diplomacy, for Chinese enterprises going global, for encouraging [the development of] the service sector and for boosting consumption. These will have implications for the whole world, including the UK. Therefore, I think it's a very precious opportunity to attend the meeting in person," said Wilson.
The government work report, which was submitted to the NPC for review during the opening meeting, stated that China will accelerate the green transition across the board and cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a total of 17 percent in the 2026-2030 period.
Wilson noted China has a number of advantages in the field of green technologies, and said the UK has been committed to promoting energy conservation and emissions reduction alongside overall efforts to address climate change, meaning there is great potential for cooperation between the two countries in accelerating the green transition.
"[One important area is] on global climate change where I think we can set even higher standards for the world, because each of our countries is observing higher and higher standards domestically," he said.
Noting how the UK market is highly accessible for Chinese electric vehicles, Wilson said the two sides are engaging in active discussions regarding the establishment of standards to ensure they do not hinder trade.
"We have quite an active dialogue with China about setting standards and not allowing standards to be a barrier to trade. In areas like battery technology where China leads the world, in electric vehicles, the UK market is actually relatively open. The largest global market for BYD electric vehicles is the United Kingdom, outside China," said Wilson.
Ties between the UK and China were given a major boost by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's four-day official visit to China back in January, which marked the first trip by a UK prime minister to China in eight years.
Starmer was accompanied by a large business delegation comprising senior executive from over 50 major British firms and representatives of British institutions across multiple sectors including finance, medicine, manufacturing, and the cultural and creative industries.
During this visit, the two countries signed more than 20 cooperative documents covering sectors such as the economy and trade, agricultural products and food, culture and market regulation.
Hailing the success of this breakthrough, Wilson said that the UK and China have already established a series of dialogue mechanisms that have laid the groundwork for comprehensively deepening cooperation between the two countries moving forward.
"We now have repositioned economic and financial dialogue. We have a joint economic and trade commission. We have a joint commission on science. We have deeper discussion on the environment and energy. All of those are ways to take our cooperation to new levels," he said.
UK aims to take cooperation with China to "new levels": British ambassador
