De Montfort University's Alistair Jones joins CGTN Europe
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00:00Well, let's talk to Alistair Jones, Associate Professor of Politics at De Montfort University in the UK.
00:06Alistair, welcome, good to see you again.
00:08What does China get out of this trip? What does the UK get out of it?
00:12I think for both countries, it's about strengthening the relationship.
00:17There's a long history between the two countries, and it's gone through highs and lows.
00:22So from a British perspective, we're looking at this long-term relationship.
00:25We're looking at inward investment into the UK from Chinese businesses.
00:29We're looking at export markets to China, as noted by your correspondent.
00:33There are a whole host of different businesses, plus also services such as education, which are hugely important.
00:39And from China's perspective, with our hugely growing middle class,
00:43there's all these sort of commodities that the UK produces that you can't get elsewhere in the world.
00:48The best example of which, for example, being Scotch whisky.
00:50So something like that, very popular in China, and products like that can be exported.
00:55On top of this, you can throw in, again, the education point.
00:58British universities having partnerships with Chinese universities to enable both countries to develop and grow.
01:05The UK finance minister, Rachel Reeves, has staked a lot of political capital on this visit.
01:11Will it deliver what she wants?
01:15That's a $64,000 question.
01:19I mean, the problem is, had she not got a huge condemnation of even going,
01:23because the UK economy is looking slightly shaky at the minute,
01:26but she'd have been damned if she'd gone, she'd been damned if she didn't go.
01:29So either way.
01:30So what we're going to see is going to see potentially some short-term benefits.
01:34There could be coming out to the meetings tomorrow, for example.
01:37There could be some commitments to do things.
01:39But what we actually are likely to see is a much longer-term relationship.
01:43And this is longer-term planning from the UK's perspective, looking at the next two, three, four years,
01:48because some of these things will take time to grow.
01:51The example there of going to the import expo in Shanghai, that would be fantastic.
01:56But the knock-on effect of that will take another two or three years.
01:59So we can see it's likely to be longer-term.
02:02There will be few immediate benefits.
02:04But this longer-term planning is actually what is needed rather than short-term quick fixes, which often don't work.
02:10Well, here's something in the short term.
02:12Mr Trump will be officially taking office in just over a week.
02:15I wonder if this relationship with China, between China and the UK, how is that going to pan out?
02:21It's not going to be straightforward, is it?
02:24I suspect nothing is going to be straightforward for the Trump regime.
02:28I think from both China and the UK's perspective,
02:30Trump's threat of putting huge tariffs on any products coming into the U.S. from around the world
02:36is going to hurt countries' economies.
02:38So the knock-on effect for these other countries is to be looking elsewhere,
02:42where you could have tariff-free trade, for example.
02:44So from a UK perspective, yes, we're going to be looking to China
02:48because our relationship with the EU since Brexit has been a real problem.
02:52So our food exports, for example, to the EU have gone down by something like 16% or 17%.
02:58But China, on the other hand, is needing food security,
03:01and therefore there's an alternative market for many in the UK agricultural sector
03:06that could be looking to China rather than looking to the U.S.
03:09So there are plenty of potential positives and basically sidelining Trump and sidelining America.
03:16Alistair, thank you for that.
03:18Alistair Jones, Associate Professor of Politics at De Montfort University in the UK.