Ambassador Liu Xiaoming Delivers A Keynote Speech and Answers Questions at the Webinar with UK Think Tanks On China-Europe Relations

John Orchard from OMFIF: Thank you very much, Ambassador, for talking to us today. You talked at the beginning about China-Europe relations. As the UK has left the European Union, does it remain part of your Europe strategy, or is it practically part of your American strategy or something else?

Ambassador Liu: It's up to the UK. I always argue with my British colleagues: we are not asking you to take side between China and the United States; I'm just asking you to take the right side of the argument. That's my first point.

The second point is, I would argue that Britain can only be Great Britain when the UK has an independent foreign policy, rather than to be viewed in China or the rest of the world that the UK is just a junior partner of the United States. Look at what happened to Huawei. I do not need to elaborate the obvious. Even yesterday, President Trump said he personally pinpointed Huawei and he made great success. And look at what their Ambassador is twitting and look at what their Secretary of State is saying after the decision was made by the UK Government. So everybody understands what the reason is behind the UK decision. When the UK wants to build global Britain, to still exert a global influence, they really have to think deep on what kind of a role they are going to play, and what kind of a position they're going to take. We want to have good relations with the EU and with the UK. There's no doubt about that.