Sinologist stresses the importance of Sino-UK ties
Print Edition
A leading British sinologist on Tuesday decried his country鈥檚 apathy and urged it to consider its ways of working with China, saying the relationship is as important as the looming Brexit.
鈥淢y argument is that, important as leaving the European Union is, it is the way Britain shapes and crafts its relationship with China that will have the larger long-term impact,鈥 said Professor Kerry Brown in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
Brown, a professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King鈥檚 College London, explained: 鈥淯nlike the EU, China is fundamentally changing the world in which we live far beyond the confines of Europe.鈥
鈥淭he UK needs to have a knowledge about China that it does not have at this moment,鈥 he added.
Brown noted that Britain needs to have 鈥渁 much clearer idea鈥 of what it wants from China, whether it is a technology partnership or market access.
He believed that the British government should also strive for a more balanced relationship with China.
Britain, with its expectations of embarking on an era of global involvement and engagement after leaving the EU, should use Brexit as a chance to develop a passion towards Sino-UK relations which seems to merit much more engagement, urged the sinologist.
鈥淲e need to adjust our mindsets, revise our vocabularies, and reset our standard map of the world,鈥 he said. 鈥淥pposition to China or attempts to exclude it is futile.鈥
鈥楰nowledge imbalance鈥
If, or when, Brexit is implemented, Brown noted, Britain needs to find different relationships outside the EU, and its relationship with China is obviously one of the key ones.
In a newly published book 鈥淭he Future of UK-China Relations,鈥 Brown, who is an associate of the Asia Pacific Program at London鈥檚 world-leading think tank Chatham House, urged a new kind of relationship between the two countries 鈥渨here the past is so heavy.鈥
As Britain recalibrates its long-established international relationships, it is worth remembering that China and Britain have much in common, he wrote.
For the UK, a constructive relationship with China in finance, intellectual partnerships, sports and the creative industries could provide a path to a brighter future, he added.
Brown believes that Britain, with positive events and mutual successes, has the potential to offer a model for the rest of the world in terms of how to work with the world鈥檚 second largest economy. This is in spite of the drastically different social systems.
Regretting the 鈥渆xtraordinary knowledge imbalance鈥 in the relationship between China and Britain, Brown said the number of students of Chinese language at UK universities has remained static at 300 despite the exponential growth in China鈥檚 economy.
The authors are Xinhua writers.
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