Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is on his second visit to London. In his last visit during which China and Britain established comprehensive strategic partnership, Premier Wen said that cooperation on trade and investment is today, while cooperation on science and technology is tomorrow and that on education is the day after tomorrow.

In the exclusive interview by People's Daily Online just a few days before the premier's visit, British ambassador to China William Ehrman illustrated with facts and figures how the two countries are doing on all of the three days and expected the relationship to "continue to grow".

Mr. Ehrman described the relationship between China and Britain as "very substantive" now, which is not just reflected in the "tangible areas", but also on deepening dialogues on foreign policy issues, for example, the Iran nuclear issue.

Last year the two premiers met in Beijing. Mr. Ehrman believes the annual meeting itself between the two premiers "has ensured that the relations have increasingly strategic nature". From the British side, this year 11 British ministers have visited China and the 12th will come soon.

Substantive relationship with increasingly strategic nature

Trade and investment will be one of the focuses of Premier Wen's visit to Britain. It is also one of the "tangible areas" that typically represent the growth of the relationship.

Mr. Ehrman cited that the trade in goods and services between China and Britain grew by 24 percent last year in 2005 , reaching 32 billion US dollars, which is very close to meet the target of 40 billion US dollars proposed by Premier Wen's last visit..

Britain has made much progress on exports to China. In first half of this year, it exported 24 percent more goods to China than it did the same period of last year. In terms of service sector, Britain has been enjoying large surplus and the export surged by 54 percent from 2003 and 2005.

Britain is the largest investor in China from the EU countries. It has realized investment of 30.5 billion US dollars in China. Energy is at the forefront in this aspect. Shell's investment is the biggest from any foreign country in China. British retailers, including B&Q and Tesco, are expanding their business in China. Rolls Royce provides engines for Airbus which has won very big orders from China.

The investment on research and development by British companies shows the rising science cooperation between the two countries. The most recent example is the pharmaceutical giant Astrazeneca's announcement of a 100-million R&D facilities to be established soon in China. BP and Unilever have already set up such facilities in China.

The contact on education between Britain and China is "extremely strong", said Mr. Ehrman. Britain began to regain its attraction to Chinese students after the number of Chinese students declined in 2004. There are 60,000 Chinese students in Britain and more than 1,000 British students studying Chinese in China. Chinese students make up 50 percent of foreign students in Britain. There are 160 joint university courses sponsored by Chinese and British universities. In July this year, the number of Chinese students' application for British schools grew by 30 percent.

The number of Chinese tourists are also rising. It is three times this year than it was one year ago. And there is an 18 percent increase in application from China so far this year for various purposes.

As the hosts for 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, Beijing and London have signed a partnership agreement earlier this year. British construction engineering company Arup is participating the building of the national stadium, Bird's Nest.

Mr. Ehrman stressed the joint efforts on Paralympics. British minister of culture, media and sports visited Beijing last week and had fruitful talks with both President of BOCOG Liu Qi and President of China Disabled Person's Federation Deng Pufang to discuss ways of cooperation.

Much to work together in days ahead

British people are also excited by the Beijing Olympics. A cultural festival to showcase "the best of modern China", as well as many other Chinese cultural manifestations, will be held in Britain in 2008. Mr. Ehrman also told us that a number of British cultural organizations and troupes are planning to participate into the Cultural Olympiad in China in 2008.

A three-year program to promote cultural exchange and cultural training between cultural institutions in China and Britain has been declared last week. And CCTV and BBC will release a film for the nature in China before 2008.

Britain has announced to be participating in the Shanghai Expo in 2010. "We plan to establish an ambitious presence in Shanghai in 2010," noted Ehrman, because it will be "a great opportunity to showcase British creativity".

Another field that Mr. Ehrman has high hope is trade and investment. He repeatedly stressed that his country is an advocate of free trade and is against protectionism "wherever it arises". By stressing free trade, Mr. Ehrman expressed Britain's resistance against the protectionism in the EU and its hope to see "further liberalization and opening-up of the Chinese economy".

At the end of the year China will fully open its service sector in line with its WTO commitment. Britain is very strong in financial services in particular. Mr. Ehrman expects to see "a strong expansion of British financial services industries cooperation with their Chinese counterparts".

China and Britain have also agreed recently to deepen their cooperation on the areas of energy, space, nanotechnology and medicine. One of the examples of the cooperation on energy that Mr. Ehrman mentioned is a China-EU joint project on a near zero emissions coal fire power station in China. He said Britain was playing a leading role in that and trying to accelerate that project.

Another area that China and Britain will work closely together is sustainable development. The two sides agreed to start the dialogue on that in 2005. This year they have identified specific areas to be focused on in the dialogue. The two sides are working together on building an "eco-city" in Shanghai.

The talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will also include climate change, energy and sustainable development. Two working groups, one for climate change and the other for energy will be established as a result.

Announcement of important new agreements and new contracts will be made during Premier Wen's visit to Britain to push forward the comprehensive cooperation. They will involve trade and investment, energy, sport, sustainable development

Mr. Ehrman stated clearly that Britain wants to work with China "increasingly closely" and develop a "comprehensive, substantive and modern relationship with China".

By People's Daily Online