China’s growth brings enormous opportunities for UK businesses while simultaneously creating profound challenges for the world. By bringing together leaders from UK and Chinese government, decision-makers in business and media and China specialists, the Hearings aim to think through and understand these challenges, to make progress in overcoming them and to realise some of the opportunities.

The hearings are being organised by The Select Committee for Trade and Industry, the All Party Parliamentary Group on China and the University of Westminster, and will help to formulate government plans which may shape our future relationship with China. Understand China’s impact: China is changing itself to work within the global system and China is investing abroad.

How should UK business be adapting to the new world economy? Businesses need to gain a better idea of how to safeguard what is precious to the way they work such as intellectual property rights, high quality, creativity, brand reputation, corporate governance and democracy. Shape the UK’s response: China plans to move up the value chain.

How will that impact on what is left of UK’s high end manufacturing base? If the UK is committed to focusing on high end manufacturing then is UK education preparing for that? Benefit from China’s global impact: China’s energy, pollution and geopolitical challenges can be self-destructive but China has grand targets to improve energy efficiency and water treatment providing huge opportunities for UK companies with expertise. The Hearings will highlight key ways UK businesses can act to make this global shift successful and profitable for the UK, for China’s continued peaceful development and for the world.

Collaboration: Experts say that although the UK has a strong science base, China has far more science graduates and is better at commercialising innovation. Can foreign  companies successfully undertake
R&D in China? Businesses need to see how to enhance the quality of their collaborations with Chinese partners, other UK businesses in China and with UK government departments

www.wmin.ac.uk/cmc