UK should pay no heed to disruptions

Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom Zheng Zeguang attended the 2025 Sino-UK Entrepreneur Forum on Wednesday.

In his keynote speech at the event, Zheng introduced China's latest development in high-tech industries, particularly those related to artificial intelligence, and highlighted the huge potential of Sino-UK collaboration in the field that has largely remained unleashed.

Hosted by The 48 Group in the United Kingdom, a London-based private company dedicated to promoting trade between China and the UK, and China Daily, the forum, themed "Smart Decisions for Smart Technologies", gathered nearly 200 participants from the British government, financial, trade, science and education sectors to promote Sino-UK cooperation and exchanges.

In recent years, China has been making efforts to improve the top-level design and strengthen the overall planning for the systematic and comprehensive advancement of the country's AI capabilities.

At the same time, the country has redoubled its efforts to advance AI technological innovation, industrial development and application in all sectors, so that it can maintain the initiative in AI development and governance.

China is home to over 4,500 AI-related enterprises, with the core AI industry valued at nearly 600 billion yuan ($83.21 billion) and the AI chip market exceeding 150 billion yuan. In 2024, AI patent applications from China accounted for 61.5 percent of the global total.

Technologies represented by AI are fostering new industries and business models, and transforming traditional industries. They have also helped propel the Chinese economy to the higher-end of the value chain, and made it smarter and greener.

According to Zheng, the added value of China's new industries, new business formats and new business models accounted for over 18 percent of its GDP last year. The number of Chinese enterprises utilizing AI technologies grew by over 37 percent, covering R&D, production and sales.

China is now the world's largest renewable energy market and equipment manufacturer, the largest exporter of clean technology, and leads the world in installed renewable energy capacity.

The more suppression China faces from the United States and its allies in the high-tech field, the more resolved the nation becomes to pursue breakthroughs in core technologies, and self-reliance in strategic industries.

For instance, to promote basic research in AI and other emerging technologies, China is integrating AI sci-tech innovation with industrial innovation, and building an enterprise-led innovation ecosystem that fosters synergy among businesses, universities, research institutes and end users.

Against the current backdrop of rampant unilateral bullying, China and the UK can work together to not only defend a fair and just world trade order but also ensure the research and development as well as the application of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, do not become a new arena for geopolitical struggles.

Deepening Sino-UK cooperation in AI technology would serve both sides' common interests and also send a clear message to other major economies that AI technology should be a field of mutual learning and collaboration for not only the advancement of the technology but also the formation of an inclusive, dynamic and effective global governance system of the sector.

The UK, host of the 2023 AI Safety Summit, has been an active promoter of such a global governance framework for AI technology.

The UK government should be well aware China is a partner, not a rival. The momentum of improvement and easing in China-UK relations has not come easily and should be cherished.

China is willing to work with the UK to overcome various disruptions and distractions and steer bilateral relationship steadily forward.