At the invitation of the 48 Group Club of Britain, the Institute of International & European Affairs (IIEA) of Ireland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, a six-member delegation led by Mr. Ai Ping, Member of the National Committee of CPPCC and CAFIU Vice-President visited Britain, Ireland and Iceland from March 16 to 25, 2016. During the visit, the delegation met with politicians, scholars, business people, media and NGO representatives, holding frank and in-depth exchanges on topics of common interest such as the latest developments in China and China-EU cooperation, thereby deepening mutual understanding and friendship and promoting cooperation. As a member of the delegation, I felt this visit was rich in content and fruitful.

 

                                                     I. Britain

 

The first leg of our visit was Britain and we stayed there for the longest hours. Though Britain was not strange to me as I had been there for several times before, this visit provided me with the opportunity to contact with some famous universities and institutes and freely exchanged opinions with friendly personages on broad prospects of China-UK cooperation, thus not only giving me surprises but also enriching my experiences.  

 

In recent years, as China’s international influence had been rising continuously, a phenomenon of “China craze” emerged in Britain. Not only politicians, academics but also the general public paid more and more attention to China. Mr. Rana Mitter, Director of University of Oxford China Center told us that as the world’s second largest economy, China’s every move would produce some impact on the region or even the world. Only by studying it thoroughly could one better engage with China. Based on this judgement, Oxford University set up China Center in September 2014. By far it had 45 full-time and part-time researchers and became the largest China center in Europe. Vice-President Ai Ping delivered a speech on China’s 13th Five-Year Plan and China-UK cooperation at China Center which drew acclaim from the teachers and students. They said that they had benefited a lot from the introduction to China’s latest developments given by Vice-President Ai Ping as he had attended the newly-concluded NPC and CPPCC sessions. Ms. Natascha Gentz, Director of the Confucius Institute for Scotland of Edinburgh University said that a dozen years ago not many people participated in the activities of the Confucius Institute; but now the situation was different. More and more people would sign up for the activities of her institute. The local people had increasing interest in learning about the Chinese culture. Some Chinese associations in Edinburgh would usually hold exhibitions, performances and parades on major traditional Chinese festivals. A lot of local people would also actively participate. 

 

Last October, President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to Britain which ushered in a “golden era” for China-UK relations. During our visit, we could feel that the British society had great expectations on UK-China cooperation. We discussed cooperation throughout our visit. In particular, China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative drew positive responses, which had left us a deep impression. Mr. Stephen Perry, Chairman of the 48 Group Club maintained that the “Belt and Road” Initiative was a great vision of vital importance and would strengthen the connectivity and cooperation between Asia, Europe and Africa and provided rare opportunities for them. Britain took the lead in joining the AIIB as it had realized the importance of cooperating with China. As pointed out by Mr. Perry, Britain had advantages in the fields of energy, telecommunications, finance and legal service and a number of world-class transnational corporations as well. They could rely on their unique strength to contribute to advancing the “Belt and Road” Initiative. Mr. Perry hoped that China could conduct tripartite cooperation in the countries along the “Belt and Road” routes with Britain and other western countries by following the principles of consultation and common effort, for this would enable various parties to complement each other, increase mutual trust and remove suspicions of related countries. Mr. Perry told us some of his friends from the business community had participated in specific projects under the “Belt and Road” Initiative. For instance, Linklaters LLP, the best law firm of Britain, had involved in some Pakistani projects by providing legal and contract consultancy.  Accenture was seeking to build in collaboration with China an optical cable line going through Central Asia, West Asia to Europe.    

 

The world top-class think tank Institute of International Strategic Studies (IISS) in London also expressed its readiness to participate in the implementation of the “Belt and Road” Initiative. Mr. Adam Ward, Director of Studies, remarked that IISS paid close attention to the “Belt and Road” Initiative and planned to send a delegation led by its president to China in near future to discuss related issues with some Chinese think tanks. He noted that by implementing the Initiative, it entailed a solid material basis as well as applying a multitude of diplomatic, administrative and military resources. Some countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” routes were in a complex situation and faced grave security challenges. IISS had long been involved in security-related studies and had good working relationship with some national security and intelligence agencies in those countries. IISS was willing to cooperate with China on country- or region-specific risk assessments and share information with each other.

 

The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) was one of the oldest non-governmental organizations engaged in people-to-people friendly exchanges. Last year, SACU held commemorations on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its founding. Ms. Zoe Reed, Chairwoman of SACU told us that they had made a series of plans to further promote the exchanges between the two peoples in the future and bring about the rejuvenation of SACU by taking advantage of the new phase in UK-China relations. 

 

Some teachers and students of Edinburgh University made proposals on strengthening cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Some suggested that Edinburgh University and CAFIU co-sponsor the “China Day” so as to allow the ordinary people to better know about China; others suggested that the University and CAFIU hold close-door roundtables to frankly exchange opinions over key issues of common concern so as to increase mutual understanding and trust; still others suggested that Britain and China carry out more joint research projects in liberal sciences and provide more scholarships.

 

                                                       II. Ireland

 

When mentioning Ireland, the first thing that came to my mind was no more than the Great River Dance, the famous Irish step dance. Therefore, I was so eager to enrich my knowledge about this unfamiliar country during the two-day short stay.  

 

Before we met with Mr. Pat Cox, former President of European Parliament and Mr. Ruairi Quinn, former Minister of Education of Ireland, we visited the Trinity College Dublin campus and its library. Located in the downtown area, it was  founded in 1592 by British Queen Elizabeth I. With high-level research capabilities, it was the best university in Ireland and one of the best in the world. Being a world education center for hundreds of years with the same status as Cambridge and Oxford University in the academic circle, the Trinity College Dublin was a world-famous college with long academic history and international fame. So it was a rare opportunity to come to visit the college. The college library was also very famous with a large collection of precious works. Here we saw the Book of Kells, the Irish national treasure, which was written by clergymen in Latin in the 9th century. Originated from the golden era for the Church development in early Medieval times, it was the best hand-written classic in ancient history of Ireland and kept many records of religious, cultural and artistic development of that time. We were also marveled at the “Long Hall” which housed more than 200,000 old classic works.

 

Mr. Cox chose to meet with us in Trinity College Dublin, maybe because he wanted to give us an opportunity to see this renowned college, or maybe because he was its Honorary Doctor. He talked about the challenges facing EU at present, to name a few, the Brexit, the EU-Russia relations, the refugee crisis and terrorist attacks etc. He told us frankly that EU was under tremendous pressure to cope with so many crises at the same time. Nevertheless, he stressed that the EU leadership had strong will and determination to safeguard the unity of EU. We fully understood Mr. Cox’s aspiration and confidence as a senior statesman who was committed to European integration.  

 

At the workshop and the open lecture held by IIEA, Vice-President Ai Ping gave a presentation on China’s 13th Five-Year Plan and China-EU relations which attracted great attention from the Irish side. IIEA was the most famous think tank of Ireland in the field of international studies. Here we found similar enthusiasm towards cooperation with China. Deputy Director of Asia-Pacific Unit of Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade said that he appreciated China’s new five development philosophies in which he could find some convergence with his own country’s development strategies, green development being a case in point. Mr. Dan Obrien, an economist, expressed his concern about the slowdown of Chinese economy, but he was still confident in Ireland-China economic cooperation. He thought that Ireland had sound investment policy and environment, appropriate to be a springboard for Chinese companies to enter the European market. He added that there was a long way to go for Chinese companies “going out” and Ireland was willing to be a testing ground for Chinese companies accelerating the pace of “going out”. Some other people from the business community also expressed the hope that China would expand investments in Ireland, further open its market to the outside and increase imports from Ireland.

 

                                                      III. Iceland

 

I was puzzled at what connections Iceland, a remote island in the Atlantic could have with China before we departed for the country. The first impression might be described as a mixture of “hotness and coldness”. On the way we could see snow-capped mountains as well as underground springs erupting with hot air. On the first day it was sunny and bright, but on the next day it was snowing heavily, which was really exciting for us.  

 

As Mr. Stefan Johannesson, Permanent Secretary of State of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs said, Iceland had basically got rid of the financial crisis. It had achieved relatively fast economic and social development with positive GDP growth and unemployment rate under control. Talking about the relations with China, he expressed admiration for China’s development achievement. Iceland was the first western European country recognizing China as a market economy. China was Iceland’s No. 1 trading partner in Asia. Last year, the number of Chinese tourists to Iceland was 48,000, ranking first among all Asian countries. In April 2013, the two countries signed the FTA. Mr. Johannesson hoped that both countries would seize this opportunity to further expand economic and trade cooperation and bring the bilateral relations to a higher level.  

 

Founded in 1953, Chinese Icelandic Cultural Society was Iceland’s  most important non-governmental organization engaged in exchanges with China. It had made outstanding contributions to cultural exchanges between the two countries. Mr. Anbor Helgason gave us a brief introduction to the Society’s history and current situation. We were surprised to know he gathered information about China through studying the speeches and works of Chinese leaders. He talked to us about Chairman Mao’s works, President Hu Jintao’s articles or even President Xi Jinping’s major speeches, and asked us about the latest developments in China and China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign. He also told us about his future plan, that is, the Society would participate in publishing the History of Iceland-China Relations and would make more effort to popularize Chinese learning in Iceland and Icelandic learning in China so as to enhance mutual understanding. He merited our deep respect for all he had done to promote people-to-people friendly exchanges between Iceland and China over the long period of time.
                
The short visit to the three countries wound up quickly. We held in-depth exchanges with our friends from various walks of life, increased mutual understanding and deepened friendship. What was more, we found out strong desires and huge potentials for bilateral cooperation, which called for common efforts on all parties to make our wishes true and translate potentials into concrete results in near future.