No ignoring China any longer

The referendum in Britain on European Union membership was held just six months after the golden age of United Kingdom-China ties was announced during President Xi Jinping's state visit in 2015.

The unexpected outcome in favor of pulling the United Kingdom out of the EU, has distracted British and EU policymakers ever since. Today, the stated exit date is the end of January 2020. But even now, much uncertainty prevails over how, and indeed if, this will happen.

What we can say as of late 2019 is that China is a surprisingly small part of the UK's economic life, and that much more could happen between the two countries. In terms of investment, the UK clearly needs new infrastructure. China has a high-speed railway network of about 30,000 kilometers in total. The UK's is less than a 100 km. The UK also offers a well-regulated potential platform for other Chinese technology.

No ignoring China any longer

There could be more trade too - in the services sector mostly. In the past, Britain, with its economic strengths in finance, insurance and banking, was often unable to make deep inroads into the Chinese market. This was either because as a developing country China was not there, or it was hard to get access to. But at some stage, the UK will be able to fulfill its aspiration to sign a trade deal with China. That will offer it the chance to get into the emerging middle-income group, urban, higher consuming market that China now has. The purchasing power of the Chinese people as they grow richer and more open to the world around them is clearly the world's greatest economic asset.

Before doing anything, however, the UK needs to urgently address one thing. It is not so much about China, but more about the UK's responsibility toward itself. At the moment, while 130,000 Chinese students are studying in British universities and around 200 million are studying English in China, where knowledge of English literature, British history and culture is relatively high, for the average British person China remains too little known, and even less understood.

In the past, British people could assume that their language would be spoken in most places. And that because of the size of their economy and their geopolitical importance, the people they were dealing with needed to understand them more than they needed to understand back. But those days are over. The UK's role now, as it seeks to operate outside the EU, is a unique and challenging one. It says it wants to become a global player with a global vision. And yet its behavior with the world's current second-largest economy is very strange. The number of students graduating from British universities today in Chinese studies is the same as it was two decades ago - around 300. At a time when China's economy has quadrupled, and its global role has transformed, this indicates that the British mindset has remained almost static.

This has to change, quickly and dramatically.

Knowledge levels about China in the UK are improving - with many state and private schools teaching Chinese. Dartford Grammar High School near London that I graduated from is a case in point. Study of China was almost nonexistent in 1985, the year I left. Asia was barely touched on in any class, in any discipline. But when I recently visited it as guest on prize giving day, I was overwhelmed by the school's transformation. Most students were learning Chinese, or Japanese. They now have annual visits to China. These are models of what the rest of Britain needs to achieve - young people who think of China as being an integral part of their world, and one they have to, and can, understand - not somewhere remote and unknowable.

British people do have a global outlook - but they now have to look far beyond geographies like Europe or North America. They have to know at least something about the history, belief systems and mindsets of people in places like China.

In Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding, a lucid and excellent new work published by Penguin, Cambridge Sinologist Roel Sterckz at least offers some frameworks for starting to grapple with the very real differences between Chinese history and belief systems underpinning actors within its long sweep. British people need to grapple with ideas and a view of the world that is unfamiliar to them, but which they now need to understand.

Investment in education about China, its people, language, history, and culture, is crucial. In the UK, this has largely been done at the elite level. Sinology has been the bastion of the specialist, the preserve of a small number of highly trained experts. Of course, their work is, and will always remain, important. But the intimidating image that this presents is unhelpful. People with any engagement and understanding of China in the UK now have a responsibility to help those around them at least start to understand, and to enjoy understanding, a place they have thought so much about.

The study of China is not just important because of whatever economic and practical benefits it brings. Even without them, understanding one of the world's great cultures offers rewards just on its own terms. Brexit has proved challenging, and for British society divisive. And yet if it proves to be the moment when engagement with such a different, important partner became part of the mainstream, rather than the preserve of a small elite, that would be a wonderful outcome.

The author is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and associate fellow on the Asia Pacific Programme at Chatham House. His book The Future of UK China Relations was published by Agenda, London, in 2019.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.