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Last updated: 12 November 2009
The Chancellor chaired a meeting of the China Task Force on Monday 19th October, with State Councillor Dai Bingguo. State Councillor Dai is the Chair of the UK Taskforce in China, and he and the Chancellor took the opportunity to exchange ideas about the future work the two Taskforces should undertake. State Councillor Dai was particularly keen to take views from members of the China Taskforce on the areas of cooperation on which they felt the Taskforce should focus.
The Chancellor said that the China Taskforce was an important mechanism for fostering friendship and closer economic ties between China and the UK. State Councillor Dai set out at the start of the meeting how he was hoping to get a better understanding of how to grow UK-China bilateral relations through the meeting with the Taskforce.
Members spoke about the strong ties between UK and Chinese business, and the need to ensure that these moved beyond the Chinese coast and into China’s regional cities. Members commended the work taking place on developing capital markets in China, and on improvements in intellectual property law. It was important that protectionism was avoided in trade between the UK and China, in line with the commitments both had made at the G20 Summits.
Good progress was being made on Sustainable Development work between the UK and China. The Taskforce should look in more detail at how to further region-region links on this. It would also be important to look at more ways in which low carbon technology could be used in agriculture, to help support sustainable development.
Cooperation in education and culture was also positive. Higher education scholarships had led to some excellent research links; but the number of scholarships was limited. The British Library and the National Library in Beijing now had an agreement in place to make their collections available to each other digitally. The British Museum was working with regional museums in China on exhibitions in five regional cities.
The following members attended the October meeting of the Taskforce:
Chancellor of the Exchequer - Chair
Lord Charles Powell
Rt Hon John Prescott
Sir David Brewer - Chairman, China Britain Business Council
Tudor Brown - President, ARM
Professor David Norse - Pro-Provost, University College London
Neil Macgregor - Director, British Museum
Sir Thomas Harris - Vice Chairman, Standard Chartered
James Richards - Director Europe, Rolls Royce
The following visitors attended the meeting:
Dai Bingguo - State Councillor
Fu Ying - Ambassador to the UK
Zhai Jun - Assistant Foreign Minister
Le Yucheng - Director General, Policy Planning Department, MFA
Shi Mingde - Director General, Bureau of Policy Studies, Office of Foreign Affairs, Central Committee of CPC
Deng Li - Deputy Director General, Department of European Affairs, MFA
Wang Lutong - Secretary to Dai Bingguo
Chen Li - Counsellor, Department of European Affairs