Tag: Building bridges of Trade and Enterprise

China Meets the World

I’m sure that all SACU members will join me in welcoming the steps taken by both Britain and China to improve their relationship recently. Foreign Secretary David Lammy met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing and with representatives of the business community in Shanghai. Then, at the G20 Summit in Brazil, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom Zheng Zeguang has said, “We stand ready to work with the UK side to follow up on the common understanding between the two leaders, and enhance dialogue, communication, and collaboration […]

A Tale of Two Supermarkets

Aldi stores are becoming a familiar presence in Shanghai One of the undoubted changes in the UK over the last few decades has been the rise of the German supermarket chain Aldi. As we will see in this blog, the same phenomenon is now happening in China. In this blog I also want to contrast the approaches to retail in China being adopted by the Aldi company with those used by Tesco, which exited the China market in 2020. First a little bit of background. The very first ‘Aldi’ store opened in the German town of Essen in 1913. It […]

Introducing Dianne Francombe, OBE .

In the Chair’s Blog this week I present an interview with Dianne Francombe, OBE. Dianne is Chief Executive Officer of the Bristol and West of England, China Bureau, an organisation set up to build business and cultural partnerships. She was awarded an OBE in 2020 in recognition of her dedicated service to improving UK-China relations. Please talk to us about your motivations for working for an organisation building partnerships with China?  Do you have your own personal experiences of China? I first visited Hong Kong in 1987 and was fascinated by this country which was so different to anywhere I […]

What are some important differences and similarities between the Chinese and British economies?

Shenzehn in south China shows the current emphasis on ‘harmony’ in Chinese economic thinking What are some important differences and similarities between the Chinese and British economies? This is a question that has been raised by some of our SACU members. I must make it clear from the start of this article that I am not an economics expert. What I’ll do in this blog is to share some of my understandings and open a space for others to share theirs. To write this blog as always I’ll draw on my own first-hand experiences in China. However I will also […]