The UK \u201cmustn\u2019t cut ourselves off\u201d from trade opportunities in China despite security and business risks, the boss of the Confederation for British Industry has said.<\/p>\n
Rain Newton-Smith highlighted that British businesses see increased trade with Chinese firms as an opportunity to drive growth.<\/p>\n
It came as business leaders faced questioning from MPs at Parliament\u2019s Business and Trade Select Committee regarding the relationship between the UK and the Chinese economy.<\/p>\n
Last December, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer admitted that China poses security threats to the UK but continued to urge for greater business ties between the countries.<\/p>\n
Ms Newton-Smith, the chief executive of one of the UK\u2019s largest business groups, was positive about the Government\u2019s engagement with China.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t have a growth strategy without a strategy for China,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina has the biggest contribution to global growth, is the third largest trading partner, and the world\u2019s largest consumer market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK is second largest exporter of trade and services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are mindful as all businesses are of security risks but it is really important that we have a strategy towards China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Government has increased the economic engagement with China and including business within this does help us as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIf we think about the future economy, there is a huge market in China and I think we mustn\u2019t cut ourselves off from some of the opportunities there, even if in some areas there are difficult conversations and negotiations that need to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, told the committee: \u201cThere are risks associated with technology advancement, AI, industrial development that they need to assess.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasingly you will find them saying that they need to engage more in China to understand those risks and to develop some of the technologies along some of those risks themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK \u201cmustn\u2019t cut ourselves off\u201d from trade opportunities in China despite security and business risks, the boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8664,8663,255,8666,8662,2534,8665,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-18880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-british-businesses","9":"tag-business-risks","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-china-britain-business-council","12":"tag-security-risks","13":"tag-the-uk","14":"tag-trade-select-committee","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116443710927589927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}