Must try harder: Cameron gets C- for his trip to China

Cameron’s recent trip to China, using diplomacy to promote business is hardly new. British Embassies and High Commissions throughout the world have always promoted trade and her diplomats speak with abundant pride in assisting British companies do business in new markets. Their market intelligence, local knowledge of customs and culture is far superior to any private organisations.

Among the 50 strong delegation who accompanied David Cameron to China is a distinct absence of Chinese names. British Chinese businesses in the UK is flourishing and doing big business in China – property development, food technology, health care and travel and tourism, some with multimillion pound turnover, which could have opened more doors culturally and in terms of political and economic strategy. This was a lost opportunity.

The list is dominated by the CEOs of blue chip companies, where many of these already have regional offices in China and hardly needed this extra trade boost – would the £750 million Rolls-Royce and the £45m deal to export breeding pigs really not have happened anyway?

Britain does not make many of the goods China or any developing countries are interested in. If they want machine tools or engineering expertise, they will look to Germany or Japan, if they want wines, perfume or agricultural knowhow they will look to France. In fact, Britain sells less to China than Italy!

Chinese policymakers raised concerns during the visit about the government’s plans to introduce a cap on immigration. They fear it could limit visas for business executives and the 85,000 Chinese students in Britain. This is in stark contrast to Cameron offering India a say on plans for Britain’s new immigration policy when he visited India in July. We wait to see whether the Prime Minister will relax immigration rules to Chinese investors, employees and students.

So, what does China want from us? We are good in services – legal, financial, education, creative industries and of course, our world class retail shops.

A single trip coupled with all the noise and column inches in the media will not win the trade billions the Prime Minister is after. This is a long haul – trust and respect – two essential ingredients needed in any business relationships in the Middle Kingdom.

We also need to educate our people in the way China does business – language, culture, respect and customs. Mandarin classes should be encouraged and taught in schools. We expect overseas CEO’s or their representatives speak to us in English why shouldn’t the Chinese expect the same in Mandarin. Understanding Chinese companies’ corporate management structure is a challenge in itself – the most senior person or general secretary is not necessarily the most senior executive!

It is often said that the Chinese never forget, especially when criticised in public – “face saving” or “losing face” is in every Chinese genes – so be prepared to be cold shouldered if you offend the Chinese.

When Cameron said “we don’t know what is going to happen with Iran [and] we can’t be certain of the future in China”, this will be noticed by the Chinese. To talk about China – a permanent member of the Security Council – in the same breath as a rogue state like Iran – is an insult to the people of China.

The 2010 Queen’s Speech referred to an “enhanced partnership with India”, it made no specific reference to China – this must have agitated Beijing.

Therefore, has Cameron been ‘cold shouldered’ by Premier Wen Jiabao when he called Cameron’s major business delegation trip to China “fruitful”. This is hardly a ringing endorsement.

In coded language, Cameron told his audience at Peking University that, democracy and civil rights were the best guarantor of prosperity and stability. Every country tries to lecture China on human rights but these won’t suddenly materialise while half the Chinese population and members of its civil institutions still don’t know what human rights mean.

These countries forget that they had many centuries developing those values and norms. China is still a relatively ‘young’ country. First they have to develop their basic institutional structures, lift the social economic standards of its people, and have the resources in place before they can adopt these values. China will do things their way and no amount of lecturing will change the status quo.  We need to be patient and not expect immediate social transformations.

Cancelling bilateral DFID aid to China which seems a perverse attitude to a country we are seeking so hard to influence, and when we are talking about modest amounts of money sent to underdeveloped regions where some very good work has done.

Germany, Japan followed by France are the largest donor countries, is it any wonder that these countries are the biggest beneficiaries of China’s economic boom.

Like any good salesman, Cameron must totalled the volume of business generated from this trip. Other than those announced earlier, a paltry sum of £2 million of new business is hardly much to shout about. This must hurt compared to when Hu Jintao, the Chinese President signed agreements on deals worth $20 billion when he visited Paris earlier this year.

All he gets for this China trip is a C-, must try harder.

Sonny Leong is Publisher and Chair of Chinese for Labour

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• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HO7Y5AHGZO2NHWUBHBJ2O2GNOI ELAINEROSE

  Cameron he goes on and on and says very little. C is too generous. D-!

• http://twitter.com/Broxted Ciaran Rehill

  Peking must end it’s illegal occupation of Tibet. Human rights abuses abound in the Middle Kingdom yet successive Labour and Tory P-Ms see no evil when it comes to the treatment of Falun Gong, Uighurs and dissidents.

• DaiSmallcoal

  Really Mr Broxted, and just who is going to ‘make’ China relinquish Tibet and stop other abuses. As Mr Leong says in his perceptive and helpful article , China is now powerful enough to take no lessons from anybody – the days of the shameful Opium Wars are now over.
  Sadly, since, as he says , China is still a relatively ‘young’ country, it may take many generations before Chinese society will concern itself with the suffering and misery of others. It has invested billions in Burma and doesn’t want any uprisings there, for a start !

• http://twitter.com/Broxted Ciaran Rehill

  I do not go with the myth that Bruce Lee lives and is training the Chinese army to take over the world. The rest of the (civilised) world does not rate Tibet (nor Burma) high enough to do anything but mouth platitudes. China is far from young, but has a different (i.e non existent) approach to human rights. Xie xie.

• dumbganda

  So, what does China want from us?

  May be we can help them rediscover their past glorious history in human rights?
  Do you know, sonnie that the Chinese all but abolished capital punishment in the 7th century, by making it so difficult to carry out the sentence? But of course, the ‘modern’ Chinese who is proud of their Soviet, Tartarised compatriots they would not dare speak up against them? The Chinese Communist Party is the first Chinese to voluntarily submit itself to Colonial Status, when its Chairman, Mao Tse Tung, went to Moscow to put tribute to his Master, Stalin, and pledged that China from then on would regard the Soviet as the Big Brother.
  All Chinese government departments, industries were to be run by Soviet ‘advisors’ or Kommissars. All Chinese university student had to be tested for Russian proficiency. China was run by Russia in all but name.

• toryboy2010

  You have a fertile imagination, but what you say is untrue. Previous Chairmen of the CCP were appointed by the Russians. Mao was chosen by the Chinese themselves. And just in case you wonder why US and China normalised relations, one of the factors that drove them into each other’s arms was the Sino-Soviet split.

• gunabut

  It is only when you see idiots like Cameron on foreign tours you realise that they still think we have an empire. They look down on their foreign counterparts like animals in a zoo, & it doesn’t dawn on them how stupid , inept & non diplomatic they are. With Cameron bleating on to the Chinese like some holier than though prophet can only have been insulting at the very least to the Chinese and has damaged further uk credibility and business prospects for many years to come.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XUUADPVCGCHDGPKVG4GA2GPUZ4 Paul

  Sonny Leong is absolutely right. After 13 years of power the Labour Party left us in a pitiful poistion when it comes to trade with China. David Cameron has thankfully re-engaged with the Chinese now and hopefully his efforts can go some way to restoring the trade balance that leaves us trailing behind countries like Italy – but at least it’s a start. However, I disagree about his point regarding ‘lecturing’ China on human rights, although in view of his connection the Labour Party with their poor human rights record during their years in power I suppose that is only to be expected. It is right to bring up sensitive matters such as these despite making one’s hosts feel uncomfortable. If people like Sonny Leong had shown equal courage during Labour’s time in office they may not have gone down to such a catastrophic defeat earlier this year.

• http://twitter.com/Henryseventh Henry Tudor

  Sonny Leong is right Cameron made a terrible error not taking any successful business people who are UK nationals of Chinese origin with him to China. There would be a UK advantage here to play the multi cultural card. Sonny is also right that Rolls Royce and the pig deal would have happened anyway. The UK Government needs to concentrate on making it easier for UK companies to do business in China.
  Britain needs to urgently sort out what goods and services it can successful sell to China, this has not been properly looked at.
  School’s in Britain need to urgently start learning Mandurin Chinese and other foreign languages of business importance. Chinese Mandurin classes must be made available as an additional subject free of charge across all UK Universities and other non business subject must be cut back to pay for this.
  The points raised regarding human rights and democracy will have to go on the back burner here for a country like Britain with a massive trade and budget deficit and a population that is increasing out of control is not really in a position to properly criticise the Chinese Government.
  For it is now must be obvious that Democracy has 2 problems that need to be dealt with.
  1. Politicians buy short term political favour by spending money they don’t have and the previous Prime Minister Gordon Brown is one of the worse examples.
  2. Democracies tend to build up massive Government debt over many generations and unless this is sorted out hey will eventually collapse under their own weight of debt.

  A very thought out and well written article by Sonny Leong which is beyond criticism.