China-UK (Britain) Geopolitics and Economics: News & Discussions

[notsuperstitious]

Juvenile at best.

 

[Jade]

China UK relations started deteriorating since 2010, when Cameroon raised the issue of human rights during talks with the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao. The worst is yet to come.

 

[KRAIT]

Bunch of cry babies....here they bully neighbouring countries, flex their muscle as a super power, and at the same time cry over a single person and tibetans who don't even pick up guns for independence.

 

[fallstuff]

Apparently, the folks in Leeds made a point, I am not sure what it means, but means a lot to the folks in that town.

 

[lem34]

We in Britain do not have have an independent foreign policy. British leaders are lackeys as much as Indians are for Americans.

Take for example the Iraq war which was opposed by a majority of the public here but the British regime decided to throw their lot in with the Americans

 

[Nan Yang]

So when Cameron visit China, should IRA (Which wants to split Northern Ireland from UK) be invited by a private organisation to give a speech next door ?

Europe has its core interest which is IRAN or Syria. They expect China to help. But do Europe respect China's core interest ? Or any other country core interest....including India's ?

 

[IndoCarib]

 

[anon45]

We in Britain do not have have an independent foreign policy. British leaders are lackeys as much as Indians are for Americans.

Take for example the Iraq war which was opposed by a majority of the public here but the British regime decided to throw their lot in with the Americans

Britain does have an independent foreign policy, but its interests are seen as alligned with the US.

If your definition of an 'independent' foreign policy is one where you have no allies, then no Britain's foreign policy is not entirely independent.

Freedom of speech is a core value, you may not like it, you are free to speak your opposition to it because you have it, but to hell with anyone that tries to change it.

 

[IndoCarib]

We in Britain do not have have an independent foreign policy. British leaders are lackeys as much as Indians are for Americans.

Take for example the Iraq war which was opposed by a majority of the public here but the British regime decided to throw their lot in with the Americans

By Independent foreign policy, do you mean china friendly foreign policy?

 

[aakash_2410]

We in Britain do not have have an independent foreign policy. British leaders are lackeys as much as Indians are for Americans.

Take for example the Iraq war which was opposed by a majority of the public here but the British regime decided to throw their lot in with the Americans

Hahahaha I like how you post the same thing EVERY SINGLE FLIPPIN TIME and how no one buys it.

I am yet to meet a British (White British not 'British Pakitani') who don't want our troops to be in Afghanistan.

 

[45'22']

BEIJING: Access to the website of the British newspaper, the Guardian, has been blocked in China, the newspaper said on Wednesday, adding that it did not know why.

The websites of the New York Times Co and Bloomberg News have been blocked in China for more than a year after they published reports about the wealth of family members of former Premier Wen Jiabao and President Xi Jinping, respectively.

China's ruling Communist Party, anxious to maintain power and preserve stability, routinely blocks access to foreign news websites it deems inappropriate or politically sensitive.

The Guardian cited an anti-censorship website, greatfire.org, as saying that its website was first blocked on Tuesday.

“The reasons for the Guardian block are unclear — no China-related stories published by the Guardian in the past two days would obviously be perceived as dangerous by the country's leadership,” the newspaper said in an article on its website.

Access to the Guardian, and other blocked websites, is limited to people with virtual private networks (VPNs) that can bypass China's internet blocking mechanism, known as the Great Firewall.

When asked about the Guardian's website being blocked in China, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “This is the first time I have heard of this.

“I don't understand the situation. You can inquire with China's relevant department,” she said at a daily news briefing.

The Guardian said a Jan 6 report it ran explored tension in China's ethnically diverse and troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, but added that the newspaper “has covered the subject before without any noticeable fallout”.

The blocking of the Guardian's website comes after the United States expressed concern about China's efforts to restrict the activity of foreign news organisations.

Neither the New York Times Co nor Bloomberg News was given new journalist visas for more than a year.

Foreign journalists from the two media organisations had feared they may have to leave China after the government gave no indication it would grant them their accreditations, a move criticised by US Vice President Joe Biden on a visit to Beijing last month.

But the government in December renewed the press accreditations for journalists from Bloomberg News and several New York Times reporters.

The Chinese-language websites of Thomson Reuters and the Wall Street Journal were blocked in mid-November. The websites became accessible on Dec 25.

Foreign reporters working in China face numerous difficulties, including a lack of access to top officials and harassment, and even violence, when covering sensitive issues such as protests. China says foreign media are granted wide-ranging freedoms.

Bloomberg LP, the news and financial information company, competes with Thomson Reuters.

Britain's Guardian says its website blocked in China - DAWN.COM

 

[cirr]

China is gonna be the largest consumer market by far in the world。There are rich pickings（from agricultural products to top-brand luxury goods）for all the countries that befriend China。Money talks

Minister for Business and Enterprise urges UK businesses to strengthen ties with the world’s second-largest economy and capitalise on its huge consumer boom

Michael Fallon said the world's second-largest economy was slowly moving away from its reliance on manufacturing and becoming 'increasingly advanced and consumer led' Photo: Reuters


By Szu Ping Chan

6:50PM GMT 24 Feb 2014

Britain must forge an alliance with China that is as strong as its “special relationship” with the US or it could miss out on the developing nation’s huge consumer boom, according to the minister for Business and Enterprise.

Michael Fallon said the world’s second-largest economy was slowly moving away from its reliance on manufacturing and becoming “increasingly advanced and consumer led”.

“I believe the UK must begin to view our relationship with China much as we view our relationship with the US,” said Mr Fallon. “If China is successful [in rebalancing its economy] there will be significant opportunities in many of the areas in which we in this country excel.”

Speaking at an event organised by advertising giant WPP, Mr Fallon said the UK faced the challenge of meeting the needs China’s growing middle class, which is on course to grow to 600m people by 2020.

“The US has had a profound influence on the UK and the rest of the world over the past 100 years, but I firmly believe that China’s rise will have as profound an effect over the next 100 years,” he said.
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, warned that many western countries - including Britain - had not yet “got to grips” with the fact that global power and influence was shifting away from developed economies. He also said that governments and businesses had not realised China’s economic potential.

“There’s a better understanding under this government of the importance of China, but if you look at the statistics, we’re not as strong [at realising the country’s importance] – and our pattern of trade is still EU orientated.”

Mr Fallon said it was wrong to view China “as a sweatshop on the Pearl River”.

"China is rebalancing, China is changing, more obviously China is slowing a little," he said. "The days of 10pc growth a year may be behind us. The focus of the Chinese government is the quality of growth rather than growth at any cost."

Sir Martin said he would “double” WPP’s activity in China to $3bn (£1.8bn) - equivalent to the size of its UK business - if he could.

“You have to acknowledge that these countries are becoming more powerful and more and more relevant,” he said. “We have to develop stronger relationships, we have to be more aggressive in an investment sense.

“I don’t think we do enough yet, not just in China but the same goes for Brazil, Russia and India. We should be one of their biggest trading partners on the basis of history and performance. But we’re not. We’re still trailing.”

Britain must build 'special relationship' with China, says Michael Fallon - Telegraph

 

[cirr]

China eyes yuan, infrastructure deals on Li's Britain trip



Reuters - UK Focus – 21 hours ago

BEIJING, June 12 (Reuters) - China's Premier Li Keqiang will discuss infrastructure, high-speed rail, nuclear and finance deals during a trip to Britain next week, as well as London's role as an offshore yuan trading hub, a senior Chinese official said on Thursday.

Li will meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron at his London residence on June 17, a reciprocal visit following the British leader's trip to China last year. Li will also go to Greece on the June 16-21 trip.

British finance minister George Osborne opened the door to further Chinese investment during a visit to Beijing last year.

He announced less stringent rules for Chinese banks operating in London, in a push to make the British capital the main offshore hub for trading in China's currency and bonds.

Osborne also paved the way for Chinese investors to take majority stakes in future British nuclear plants.

Speaking to reporters ahead of Li's visit, deputy Chinese commerce minister Gao Yan signalled further agreements would be signed.

"London has all along dedicated itself to becoming a renminbi trading centre. Relevant departments in China and Britain have had proactive investigations into this," she said, using the formal name for China's currency.

"On this visit to Britain by Premier Li I believe that there will be positive developments on this issue, including on financial cooperation," Gao added. "We will fully make use of London's position as a financial centre to further develop China's finance industry."

China Construction Bank, China's second-largest lender, has been selected to become the first clearing service for renminbi trading in London, the Financial Times reported this week.

The internationalisation of the yuan is one of China's most ambitious and hotly debated reform projects. From less than 1 percent in 2009, nearly a fifth of China's trade is now settled in yuan.

The objective is to increase the usage of the currency for trade, investment, and as a reserve currency, while lowering forex risk for Chinese companies and reducing the country's exposure to U.S. economic policy.

FREE TRADE DEAL TALK

There could also be agreements on energy, infrastructure and high speed rail, Gao said, praising Britain's open attitude towards foreign investment which she said was a "model" for the rest of Europe.

"Britain has a sound legal system, a transparent oversight environment. As long as companies accord with the law and the rules and demands of the regulators generally, then investment and business will have no barriers," Gao added.

She said that both countries should work to push for a multi-billion-dollar free trade deal between Beijing and the European Union.

Cameron expressed his support for this when he was in Beijing in December, riling the EU executive which rejected the move as premature.

On the Greek leg of Li's trip, there will also be infrastructure and energy agreements, and China will encourage Chinese companies to participate in Greece's privatisation programme, Gao said.

She declined to provide details on any of the deals that could be signed in Britain or Greece, saying it would be a "surprise".

China's Cosco Group and four other suitors have been shortlisted as potential buyers of a majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority OLP, Greek privatisation agency HRADF said last week.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

China eyes yuan, infrastructure deals on Li's Britain trip - Yahoo Finance UK

 

[dlclong]

Mutual Benefit Common Development

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Excellent news, and congratulations to both parties.