Ahead of an official visit to Britain that begins on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said “Chinese companies should not be viewed with bias”.
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She (Munich: SOQ.MU – news) believes the British government is on an increasingly strong footing in its negotiations with China and that the relationship can be improved further in this week’s visit.
“If you have all this we certainly would want to have cooperation with you like the French”.
His visit hopes to make China, Britain’s second biggest trade partner within 10 years.
Britain is also a founding member of the AIIB.
Speaking to China Central Television, the PM said President Xi’s visit was a “very important moment” and hailed a “golden era” in ties between the countries.
Strengthening bonds were highlighted this year when Britain was one of the first European nations to embrace the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
As an worldwide financial hub, Britain has a lot to share with China.
He argued that Britain could still be the one-party dictatorship’s “best partner in the West” despite its record of torture, ethnic persecution, and restricting freedom of the press. In the past decade, huge improvements have been made in political, economic and people-to-people exchanges. China’s system is different from that of Western countries.
Alastair Winter, chief economist of City investment bank Daniel Stewart, said: “The NBS (National Bureau of Statistics) has become quite prickly recently and so it will be most interesting to see if it brazenly reports GDP on track at 7% or uses a subtler approach of a near miss…”
The United Kingdom had “nothing to fear about China”, said Mr Liu.
” Europe more generally is keen to do more business with China”. Britain, on the other hand, posted annual growth of less than 3% in the same period.
The two sides are looking to explore new areas that will bring mutual benefits, according to Feng.
China itself is anxious about the slowing of the broader global economy, Xi said, even while he expressed confidence that China would weather the current downturn as it reshapes its economy to be more resilient in the future. Meanwhile, six thousand British students came to China.
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Britain has opened its gates wide for Chinese investment, which witnessed an annual growth rate of 85% in the previous five years.
