Foreign and Military Affairs
China central to UK interests: Envoy
By Zhang Haizhou and Ai Yang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-28 09:33
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New ambassador keen to be part of 'history in the making'
Only three days since taking his new job, British Ambassador to China Sebastian Wood yesterday announced his "action plan" to visit eight cities within 88 days.
Through these trips, Wood hopes to get more "first-hand feeling" of China's urban development.
Aged 49, Wood is the youngest-ever British ambassador to China. It is also the first time for him to be the UK's top envoy to a country. But his lack of experience obviously hasn't stopped Wood from having ambitious goals.
He feels proud to take the job, which is now "central to UK interests", and said working in an emerging China today is like "participating in history in the making".
In his first briefing in Beijing, Wood unveiled his ambitious intentions: by the end of his four-year term, he hopes that both countries will have better cooperation on almost all major issues, ranging from trade and economics, nuclear non-proliferation and climate change.
Wood said he'd like "China and its international partners to be working much more effectively together on the shared challenges of globalization and interdependence".
"I would like us to have helped bring about a dramatic expansion in bilateral ties."
However, the new ambassador admitted ties between the two countries had been strained recently.
British climate change minister Edward Miliband accused China of "hijacking" the Copenhagen summit in December and preventing a legally binding treaty from being agreed on.
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Wood said it's "right" for both countries to "step back" and "reflect" on the tensions, as the Sino-British relation is one that both countries "need to work on".
Despite their "very different history and culture", he said it was important to look toward the future as China and Britain will have more shared interests as interdependence grows.
On the economic front, Wood said the two economies are highly complimentary. China, for example, needs to develop its service sector, while British firms are quite competitive in this area. Also, as "one of the most open investment destinations", Britain welcomes more Chinese investment, Wood added, stressing both countries should avoid trade protectionism.
However, Wood didn't shy away from the differences between London and Beijing that need to be bridged to make the relationship a mature one. "It (human rights) is a very important part of our dialogue."
Britain wants to see China's continued economic boom, Wood told reporters, but improvement in the rule of law is important for China's growth.
"The human rights issue is one of the UK's long-term concerns," said Li Jingkun, an analyst on UK studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. China will keep "a consistent principle" on these matters.
Commenting on Wood's opening remarks as the top British envoy here, Li said the new ambassador "has sent a warming signal to the Chinese (by announcing his travel plan)".
"It's the UK's pragmatic choice to strengthen ties with China," she added, citing London as Beijing's second largest trading partner in the European Union after Germany.
A China hand
Wood told China Daily that he headed a British delegation to Tibet and discussed human rights with China before March 14, 2008, but his association with China dated long before that year. He said he had visited China "more than 20 times".
Wood started learning Mandarin Chinese in 1991 in Taiwan, and he visited the Chinese mainland for the first time in the same year to tour around the western part of the country including Sichuan, Gansu, and Guangxi.
After working for four years in Hong Kong, Wood worked as a fellow at Harvard University, majoring in international security studies, especially East Asia security.
When serving as the director of Asia Pacific at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Wood visited Chongqing with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in February 2008.
At a construction site in Chongqing, Wood then told China Daily "the UK has a huge amount of interest in Chinese society" and would like to push forward, "win-win cooperation".
