Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Britain was concluded by the issuing of a joint statement and the signing of cooperation and investment deals worth 14 billion pounds. The press and many observers have focused on bilateral economic exchanges, and the prospect of major deals.

It is noteworthy that Sino-UK trade has increased, while globally China’s foreign trade has experienced a downturn. The heads of the two governments have reiterated the commitment to expanding bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars within one year. This will raise expectations for major deals.

Currently, China needs to stabilize economic growth and avoid economic risks at the same time. The British market is unique to China, a nation in great need of expanding its foreign trade and investment areas. Britain also hopes to offset the impact of the weakness of the eurozone on the British economy by strengthening trade ties with China. Naturally, we can expect more big projects.

We must recognize that economic ties between China and Britain are part of the relationship between these two major world powers, but they can be hampered or disrupted by the international situation, or by other factors such as political relations. For instance, economic and trade ties were influenced by the poor state of political relations when David Cameron took office. In that sense, on the premise of a stable political relationship, stable economic ties can be ensured and major deals will emerge and be executed.

Sino-UK relations cannot be isolated from the influence of the international situation. China-EU trade ties and the crises in Ukraine and Syria will exert influence on the trade ties between China and Britain and the prospect of major deals.

Therefore, we should not focus only on the gloss of major deals when it comes to the evaluation of Sino-UK relations. Instead, we should pay more attention to the influence of the international situation on bilateral relations and the broad and in-depth exchanges between the two nations such as political exchanges, including high-level visits and exchanges at other levels.

This article is edited and translated from the 《考量中英关系不要光盯着“大单”》，Author: Tao Duanfang，source: Shenzhen Special Zone Daily