Theresa May meets Chinese president for talks on trade and global security
The Prime Minister is hoping for deals worth £9 billion during her three-day visit.
Theresa May was meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, on the second day of a trade mission which she believes will result in commercial deals worth as much as £9 billion.
Mrs May and premier Li Keqiang agreed on Wednesday on a new trade and investment review which is seen as a stepping stone to a full free trade agreement after Brexit.
And Mr Li promised Beijing will further open up its markets to the UK, including to agricultural products and financial services.
She told a joint news conference that with UK-China trade currently worth a record £59 billion a year, she expected deals worth a further £9 billion to be signed during the course of her three-day visit.
Mr Li said their talks had delivered “substantive results” and that their bilateral relationship would not be affected by Britain’s impending withdrawal from the EU.
“We will work to maintain the continued growth in our bilateral relations to take forward our relationship in the golden era,” he said.
“The two-way opening up between China and the UK will go even further and China will open even wider to the UK.
Mrs May was also expected to highlight environmental issues, presenting the Chinese leader with a box-set copy of the BBC’s Blue Planet II series, with a specially written message from presenter Sir David Attenborough.
Talks yesterday covered a wide range of issues including human rights, the protection of intellectual property rights and overcapacity in the international steel market, with China committed to a 200 million tonne cut in its steel production between 2016 and 2020.
“We agree that its pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile programmes is illegal, reckless and poses an unacceptable threat to international security,” Mrs May said.
The Prime Minister the Chinese had agreed to make progress over the course of the next six months on lifting the BSE ban on British beef exports as well as allowing a broader range of UK dairy products, which Number 10 said could be worth £500 million over five years.
British officials made clear that the PM was concerned about how open the civil engineering projects linked to the initiative would be to bids from companies in the UK. But they stressed that Britain’s stance towards the massive infrastructure project was positive.
Medopad has signed 15 trade deals, with leading Chinese organisations including China Resources, GSK China, Peking University, Lenovo, Ping An Good Doctor and UMP Healthcare.
The company’s chief executive Dan Vahdat said: “We are honoured to announce collaborations and projects with leading Chinese and international healthcare, technology, academic and corporate partners.
“Together we will work to improve patient care in China and around the world, and we look forward to our technology and AI capabilities contributing a small part towards China’s healthcare reform goals.”