politics

The UK has done well through partnering with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) before, but is it now considering extricating itself from further BRI collaboration with Beijing to align itself with the US or the EU? Joe Cash investigates A global contest is brewing. China, the US, and the EU are all vying for influence along routes that Beijing first turned its attention to in 2013 when …

Political analyst and academic Kerry Brown looks ahead to what we can expect from the UK-China relationship in 2022 Britain and China’s relationship in 2022 will offer a continuation of themes and issues we have seen developing over 2021. Geopolitically, the tensions between the US and the People’s Republic will continue to overshadow everything else. Having signed up to the AUKUS (Australia, UK, US) security pact in September, and framed …

The Prime Minister has appointed the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss as Foreign Secretary, meaning that there’s a new top team in government handling the UK’s political-economic relationship with China; the former Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, moves to head up to the Department for International Trade Ms Truss has become the UK’s second female foreign secretary, following Labour’s Margaret Beckett 15 years ago. Her appointment means …

Improved state capacity, deeper commercial and financial links with the outside world, and online activism will have an important impact on Chinese politics in the coming years, while many trends point towards more, not less cooperation between China and western countries On 1 July 2021, China’s ruling Communist Party celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1921 in Shanghai’s French Concession. The official festivities included a massive show titled …

In a new policy update, Joe Cash explores how the House of Lords’ International Relations & Defence Committee inquiry into the UK’s security and trade relationship with China is shaping up, and how the consensus view is that the UK cannot afford to self-isolate from China – even if Beijing asks London difficult questions at times The political conversation on China in Parliament and across Whitehall has changed in recent …

As a sign of the thriving business ties between the UK and China, CBBC members, including business leaders from AstraZeneca, BP and Jaguar Land Rover, held a virtual meeting with Premier Li Keqiang and a group of senior UK business leaders from CBBC Member companies on 6 July 2021 The meeting covered a wide range of issues, including bilateral trade and investment, measures to improve the business environment and counter …

Understanding China’s top political body is key to understanding how decisions and policies get made, writes Robynne Tindall. From little known Zhao Leji to Xi Jinping himself, these are the 7 men whose names you should know. The Politburo Standing Committee, formally known as the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, is China’s most powerful decision-making body and currently made up of seven top …

As part of CBBC’s new CB Insights series, this member-exclusive event will be addressing Biden’s stance on China. It’s called Beyond 100 Days – Biden and the future of US-China relations In the final days of the Trump Administration, President Trump took the unprecedented step of declassifying the current US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific some 30 years ahead of schedule. This document provided a unique snapshot of the factors underpinning …

Nicolas Chapuis, the EU’s ambassador in Beijing, on why the bloc is making progress in its relations with China, and why you won’t hear him using words like ‘decoupling’ or ‘containment’ any time soon “We have gained relevance… we are talking to the boss now,” Nicolas Chapuis tells CBBC in an interview in early March. By the “boss”, Chapuis clearly means Xi Jinping himself. The Chinese leader has in recent …

In October 2020, Dame Caroline Wilson became the UK’s ambassador to China, succeeding Dame Barbara Woodward, who held the role from 2015 and left to become UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations – here’s what you need to know about her Arriving in Beijing amid tensions related to Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Chinese communications giant Huawei, Wilson said she would bring a “human touch” to …