Stable growth of China-UK ties crucial, Li says

Premier reiterates Beijing's pledge of opening up wider, calls for mutual trust

Premier Li Keqiang underscored on Tuesday the significance of a stable relationship between China and the United Kingdom in promoting world economic recovery and responding to global challenges, in a virtual dialogue with representatives of the British business sector.

China and the UK are both important forces in safeguarding global peace, promoting common growth and upholding multilateral trading systems as the international landscape faces multiple uncertain and unstable factors, Li said.

The dialogue, co-hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and China-Britain Business Council, brought together executives and heads of over 30 multinationals and institutions from the UK.

The premier exchanged views with them on issues ranging from China-UK relations, the COVID-19 pandemic, responding to climate change, the business environment and cooperation in trade in services.

Beijing stands ready to work with London to consolidate mutual trust and respect, seek common ground while putting aside differences, deepen win-win cooperation and build consensuses, and resolve differences through equal dialogue, in a bid to promote the healthy and steady development of bilateral ties, Li said.

He emphasized that mankind is a community with a shared future that shares weal and woe and that only through solidarity and cooperation can the international community finally conquer the pandemic.

He reiterated China's position that the nation sees vaccines as global public goods and said that Beijing stands ready to keep up exchanges with various sides to share research results, especially in coping with variants of the virus, so as to enable an earlier global victory over the pandemic.

It will be an arduous task for China to attain low-carbon and green development while modernizing the country and enabling the people to live happy lives by the middle of this century, he said, adding that it will be an inevitable path for China's modernization process to peak carbon emission before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

Li said that he hopes the two sides can scale up cooperation in areas including green energy and work further together on green technology while putting in place sound intellectual property protection measures.

He reiterated China's pledge that the country will only open up wider, saying that China welcomes more foreign investment and that the nation will offer a level playing field for various market players, including foreign businesses.

China hopes that the UK can also offer a fair, just and nondiscriminatory business environment for Chinese businesses, he said.

Li encouraged various sectors from both nations to step up exchanges and dialogues, enhance understanding between the two peoples and accumulate positive factors for the growth of bilateral relations.

The British representatives expressed confidence in China's development, saying that the two nations shared broad room for win-win development in areas such as finance, services, agriculture, healthcare, education, manufacturing and infrastructure.

They expressed expectations for enhanced trade and investment relations with China and deeper pragmatic cooperation to advance the bilateral relations.