Keir Starmer began the first visit to China by a British prime minister since 2018 on Wednesday, seeking to strengthen political and business ties with Beijing as relations between Western countries and the US become more volatile.

Starmer wants to attract Chinese investment in the UK. 

The Thompson Engineering center houses research into how seating can help keep passengers as safe as possible in a so-called "survivable impact" on an airplane. 

Founded in 1997 by James Thompson, the company has become a world-leading maker of airplane seats, particularly focusing on business and first-class seats.

CGTN visited the center a few weeks ago and it was quite the experience!

Shortly after our arrival, an engineer hits a big red button. The reverse accelerator immediately fires an airplane seat backwards at 16 times gravity or G-force, reaching around 45 kilometers per hour (kmh) in 0.2 of a second. 

The passenger's neck snaps back, their arms and legs flailing about wildly.

Luckily this passenger is just a crash test dummy.

'Where airlines make their money'

CGTN sat down with Thompson CEO Keith Anderson at the first ever China-Northern Ireland investment forum in Belfast last November.

"The value of business class to airlines is that's where they make their money," Anderson begins. "And so that area of the plane is growing in capacity all the time and airlines are increasingly driving more business class seats onto the airline."

He adds: "It's the quality of a premium product, the product design evolution that gives the passenger a real sense of luxury, comfort, and actually a sense of not being on an airplane anymore at all. That's incredibly valuable."

In 2016 Chinese state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and its partner, CNIC Corporation, bought the company.

But how did a Chinese state-owned company find this Northern Ireland-based family business and decide to buy it?

Wang Tingjiang, Thompson Aero Seating chairman, was also in Belfast at the forum and answered that question for CGTN: "The Chinese Aviation Industry Corporation is determined to become a global supplier within the civil aircraft industry, this has been marked out as a Chinese industrial strategy."

"We did our research and discovered that Thompson Aero Seating was an excellent company. We wanted to help them become a world-class seating manufacturer."

He adds: "They wanted a partner, they wanted to invest in a company like ours overseas and we were the choice and we're delighted with that."

Covid nearly a 'knockout blow'

But the business hit some serious turbulence and in 2020 was 75 million US dollars in the red, putting over a thousand Northern Irish jobs at risk.

"Covid was almost a knockout blow for Thompson, almost a killer," Anderson continues, the emotion visible.

"We're only here because of our shareholders, our investor and shareholder was very focused on the long-term, very confident with the skill set and the capabilities of our Northern Irish workforce and held out for the long term."

He adds: "In fact, just coming out of Covid, at the very worst of the downturn, they saw the merits in the investment in our Dynamic Test Center, which is an incredible facility and asset to our company. It gives us a competitive advantage in the marketplace and again without our shareholder support on that, we simply wouldn't be positioned for the success that we are today."

Anderson took over as CEO in 2023 and helped pilot the company back on course. Last year saw revenues almost double and with an order book of over a billion dollars for airlines like Virgin Atlantic, Air China, Singapore Air, Delta, the factory is at full capacity.

Li Nan is China's Consul General in Northern Ireland and he sees more opportunities for this kind of collaboration.

According to Li: "Northern Ireland has many advantages,including dual market access to the UK and EU market, number one. Number two, it's a very highly educated talent pool. Then you have the low crime rate on the street, it's affordable and beautiful. I think all these are attractive factors for potential investors, tourists, and students from China."

Li also sees Thompson as an example, saying: "China is really focused on advanced manufacturing right now and here I have found that there are quite a few family-owned businesses or factories which make some very special products and by working together with Chinese investors they could upgrade their technology and benefit from digital transformations."

Li says there are big opportunities in Fintech (financial technology), biopharmacy, and green energy tech sectors, and the AVIC-Thompson billion-dollar success story can be a blueprint to follow.