UK Prime Minister Theresa May made a three-day key visit to China, aimed at expanding the country’s economic prospects after Breckit.
During her meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, she said she wanted to “further develop the comprehensive strategic partnership” with China. According to May’s words, after Brexit, Britain is looking ahead and has an opportunity to develop an independent trade policy. She was traveling with a delegation of 50 British businessmen.
For its part, Beijing praised Theresa May’s “pragmatism”, which delicately ignored appeals to raise issues like the human rights and Hong Kong during her three-day visit to the asian country. Western media and activists in Hong Kong called on May to criticize Beijing and hoped that the UK will put pressure on China, but it did not happen.
Instead, the focus on conversations was exclusively on economic issues.
Deals worth more than £9.3 billion (13.26 bln. USD) were made as well as 2500 new jobs were created in the Kingdom. Even at present Chinese investments are helping for the development of infrastructure projects and creating jobs in the UK. Around 50 000 British companies are importing and more than 10 000 are exporting goods to China. Just the companies in the financial sector in the UK are contributing with deals for more than £1 billion and access to the Chinese market, that will create 890 jobs.
At the end of the meeting, May said that the United Kingdom supports Xi’s perspective for globalization and for more open Chinese economy. Beijing sees Brexit as “strategic opportunity” to strengthen mutual co-operation.
Thus, May’s visit can and should be seen as an important moment in London’s post-Brexit foreign-political and economic orientation, forced to seek diversification and new partners.
Not everyone, however, shares this opinion. Some analysts believe that Brexit has seriously undermined London’s position in front of Beijing, where in the past Britain was considered as the key partner in the European Union. According to them, China will most likely see in May an obedient, weak leader who needs something concrete that creates vulnerability.
Nonetheless, the economic figures and positive conversations show good results from the visit. Now that it’s over, the Brexit theme is back in the first place. The good news is that the vacuum in London’s trade relations after Brexit is already partly covered.
