In 1986, then-US president Ronald Reagan said, “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”

On Jan 10, the United Kingdom’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), Rachel Reeves, arrived in Beijing for a three-day visit, accompanied by a high-powered delegation. It included the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey; the chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority, Nikhil Rathi; the HSBC chairman, Mark Tucker; and representatives of the country’s largest financial services firms (including Standard Chartered, Prudential, Schroders, Fidelity International and the London Stock Exchange Group).

As the UK has always depended on global trade and investment flows, Reeves’ mission was to recalibrate the Anglo-Chinese relationship. After a decade of lost opportunities, she sought to make a reality of the new Labour government’s commitment to enhancing economic and financial cooperation between the two countries. In particular, she hoped to boost Britain’s financial-services sector.

The visit grew from November’s G20 summit meeting in Brazil between the British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at which they agreed to explore deeper cooperation.

Starmer has made no secret of his belief that everybody will benefit if the UK cooperates with Beijing on global stability, climate change, and the transition to clean energy. He is focused on the bigger picture, and has described a good relationship with China as “rooted in the UK’s national interest”.

Although Reeves’ trip was an integral part of Starmer’s economic/foreign policy, crude efforts were made to derail it. For example, ideologues peddled scare stories about Chinese spies weaseling their way into the citadels of power (including the royal family).

As the departure date approached, they intensified their efforts. On Jan 8, in the House of Commons, there were calls for Reeves to cancel her trip. It was claimed financial turbulence at home necessitated her presence, although nobody was fooled.

The veteran Sinophobe, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, announced on X that “the trip is pointless” and would “not deliver the growth the Labour government craves”. He described it as a return to “Operation Kowtow”, and the former Hong Kong governor, Lord (Chris) Patten, as blinkered as ever, called it “delusional”. Their confederate, Tom Tugendhat, who has failed to become Conservative Party leader despite repeatedly playing the “China card”, accused Reeves of visiting Beijing “with a begging bowl, not with a trading deal”.

On Jan 10, moreover, a coterie of China-hostile groups, including Mark Clifford’s Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, Benedict Rogers’ Hong Kong Watch and (national security fugitive) Anna Kwok’s Hong Kong Democracy Council, wrote to Reeves to “express our deep concern with efforts to normalize economic engagement”. As they spend their days promoting America’s foreign policy objectives (Clifford and Kwok are US-based), their meddling was presumably sanctioned on high (albeit tacitly), given Washington’s aversion to closer UK-China ties.

In any event, Reeves, who would have been familiar with the UK-based Hong Kong Watch’s reputation as an anti-China propaganda outfit, ignored their letter (she must have realized it was a try-on when it described as “political prisoners” the criminals who, after the 2019 insurrection, were convicted in Hong Kong of arson, causing grievous bodily harm, criminal damage, criminal intimidation, fire-bombing and rioting).

Separately, on Jan 7, a parliamentary committee, chaired by Liam Byrne, realizing that Reeves’ trip would proceed as planned, tried to antagonize her hosts. It accused the online fashion retailer Shein, founded in China, of using materials derived from forced labor.

Byrne then contacted the London Stock Exchange, seeking to frustrate the company’s initial public offering. As he must have known, if Shein were to be denied a London listing, other big Chinese companies could be deterred from applying and might take their money elsewhere, to the UK’s detriment.

At the end of her visit, Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China”, which must now be brought to fruition. Starmer’s challenge is to cement the progress she has made, elevate cooperation to new heights, and ensure that British interests carry the day

To her credit, Reeves was unperturbed by any of these shenanigans. Upon arrival in Beijing, she pinned her colors firmly to the mast. She said, “We must engage confidently with China”, adding that to choose otherwise was “no choice at all”.

Reeves was welcomed by the Chinese vice-president, Han Zheng, who said her visit was a “positive signal” that would assist the development of both their countries.

Under the previous Conservative governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the UK lagged behind the European Union and the United States in terms of high-level engagement with Beijing, and its economy suffered accordingly. The UK was marginalized, and Reeves is now trying to make up for lost time.

She said a long-term relationship with China was “squarely in our national interest”. It would help to deliver the growth “that makes working people in every corner of Britain better off”. This, given the parlous state of the British economy, was incontrovertible.

Reeves knows full well that China will be the largest engine of growth this decade and sees the opportunities. If it plays its cards right, the UK can benefit enormously from China’s development. China is already the UK’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for goods and services worth 113 billion pounds ($137 billion), with, she noted, “exports supporting close to a half-million jobs in the UK”.

A priority for Reeves was reviving the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue, suspended in 2019. On Jan 11, she and the Chinese vice-premier, He Lifeng, co-chaired the (11th) Dialogue, and acknowledged the benefits of closer cooperation for both countries. Reeves said she hoped it would assist British firms wanting either to export to China or else to expand their existing operations.

He Lifeng also has high hopes for future cooperation. He said he believes it will assist the internationalization of the Chinese yuan, deepen links between capital markets, and strengthen cooperation in green finance and other areas.

Indeed, much of the groundwork has already been done. The City of London is the world’s largest center for renminbi foreign exchange transactions and the second-largest offshore renminbi payments center, and its lure for China is obvious, provided the conditions are right.

After the Dialogue, it was announced that He and Reeves had agreed to deepen cooperation on trade, financial services, investment, and climate issues. Given her focus on growth and raising living standards, this must have delighted her delegation, and the meeting yielded immediate results.

Reeves announced that “pragmatic cooperation” had resulted in agreements worth 600 million pounds to the British economy over the next five years and that the course had been set for the delivery of up to 1 billion pounds. She also unveiled a slew of agreements covering automobiles, legal services, fertilizers, vaccine approvals, whiskey labelling and accountancy. Although welcome news for the business world, it was the last thing Duncan Smith, Patten and Tugendhat wished to hear.

When Reeves visited the Beijing storeroom of Bromptons, the British bicycle-maker, she rammed the point home, emphasizing that “growth is the No 1 priority of this government, to make our country better off”. To achieve growth, she said, “We need to help British businesses around the world”, a message she reiterated when she visited British companies in Shanghai on Jan 12.

Approximately two-thirds of British companies operating in China have their headquarters in Shanghai, and Reeves highlighted its significance for Britain’s growth. Shanghai’s mayor, Gong Zheng, said he hoped the UK would increase its presence in Shanghai in sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean energy and healthcare, and the ball is now in Britain’s court.

Although Reeves focused on financial services, her government also sees potential in “green tech”. According to The Guardian, talks have recently been held with at least two Chinese car manufacturers in the UK. Unlike the US and the EU, the UK has not imposed tariffs on Chinese electric cars.

Reeves wants more British jobs, and greater Chinese investment is the key. She called the UK a “natural home” for Chinese finance, and she undoubtedly impressed this upon her hosts. At a time when it is hard to raise capital in London, China is ideally placed to boost Britain’s flatlining growth rate.

Although the significance of the visit was lost on the bigots at home, it was recognized by the people in the know.

For example, the chairman of the China-Britain Business Council, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, applauded Reeves’ mission. He said, “She is doing exactly the right thing in the right way with her eyes wide open.” He also pointed out that China had “800 million middle-class people who want to buy British products, and (are) interested in British savings and pensions products — it’s madness not to engage.”

The HSBC chairman, Mark Tucker, agreed. He told the Global Times that the deepening of the UK-China partnership was “vital to delivering growth, investment and high-quality products for both China and the UK”.

Although Reeves’ mission will hopefully have achieved its objectives, Beijing will want to be sure that the UK is serious this time. Its China policy has fluctuated wildly since the days of Tony Blair (1997-2007), and China will need reassurance it will not change again, particularly if the new US government interferes (as it did with Boris Johnson over Huawei in 2020). As forward planning requires some degree of certainty, the UK must ensure its approaches to China are generally consistent, and are no longer at the mercy of its ideologues.

However, if Starmer sticks to his guns, anything is possible.

Reeves called her visit a “significant milestone” in Anglo-Chinese relations, and she deserves great credit. Although she envisages a “stable, pragmatic” relationship, she must remain focused, regardless of how noisy her critics may become.

If Britain is to have a future worthy of the name, its foreign policy must be determined by visionary statesmen and not by US lackeys. Sad to say, political pygmies and has-beens remain a threat, and they must be kept at bay. If Britain does not grasp its China opportunities, its economy will suffer, and it cannot expect others to help out.

The US, for example, has, after four years, still not given the UK a post-Brexit free trade deal, and the incoming president, Donald Trump, plans to hit it with tariffs. All the blather about the “special relationship” should deceive nobody, and the UK must get real. China can provide it with a secure economic partnership, which is exactly what it needs in troubled times.

At the end of her visit, Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China”, which must now be brought to fruition. Starmer’s challenge is to cement the progress she has made, elevate cooperation to new heights, and ensure that British interests carry the day.

The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong government.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.