UK companies are looking forward to closer ties with China

Some UK companies say they want to forge closer links with China, despite government curbs. It's one of the messages coming from the China-UK Economic and Trade Forum in Manchester, now in its 6th year.

Over 200 business professionals from the UK and China have gathered in Manchester to explore potential opportunities for business cooperation, and to feel the pulse of China's economic recovery since it lifted COVID restrictions about a year ago.

China's Ambassador to the UK was keen to provide a positive counter-balance to recent negative reporting of his country's economy.

"China's economic growth is now of higher quality and greener. Our exports have become synonymous with new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products," said Chinese Ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang. "China's AI industry has become a technological engine for its growth. Today, the overall Chinese economy, backed by strong resilience and enormous potential, remains promising and will remain so in the long run."

China is now Britain's fourth largest trading partner. Annual two-way trade volume surpassed $135 billion by the end of the second quarter, an increase of 8.5 percent. Renewable energy is playing a major role - and is a strong contender for broader cooperation going forward.

"I think the technical development for renewables in China is very important. We're seeing China emerge as a leader in a number of areas, and we all share one planet. And so for me, it's important to engage in what's going on," said Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates.

That was part of the reason why I was there recently to build those relationships, and if there's an opportunity for Chinese companies to export their technologies in the renewables space, I think we need to take a close look at that and figure out are there ways in which we can embrace that. The UK market is moving in a very aggressive way on renewables. I think the UK and China complement each other," he added.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on record as saying that the UK will not be returning to the close relationship seen under former Prime Minister David Cameron, who recently returned to government as foreign secretary.

"Clearly, we will not do anything the UK government prohibits us from doing, but we will work as hard as we can to build positive relationships, which I've had for a number of years. We were very proud to welcome President Xi here in 2018 and we want to just try and build on the relationships that we've been creating through the Manchester-China Forum the last ten years," said Eamonn Boylan, chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.