UK business community looks to more China opportunities after PM visit

Business leaders in the United Kingdom are eager to capitalize on the momentum generated by the UK prime minister's visit to China, and they expressed great interest in exploring opportunities in China's huge market and collaborating with Chinese partners at an annual gathering in London on Friday.

The event, the "Icebreakers" Chinese New Year celebration 2026, was hosted—as it is each year—by the 48 Group, named after a UK trade delegation of 48 businessmen known as the "Icebreakers", who traveled to Beijing in the 1950s to initiate trade ties with China, breaking a Western trade embargo at the time.

Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng sent a congratulatory message for the event, which was read out by China's ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang.

The vice-premier noted that President Xi Jinping and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reached important consensus on developing a long-term and consistent comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Britain recently, breaking new ground for bilateral relations and cooperation.

He expressed hope that people from all walks of life in both countries will continue to carry forward the "ice-breaking" spirit, strengthen cooperation in areas including trade and investment, green transition, financial services, and scientific and technological innovation.

Ambassador Zheng continued to address the audience, noting that the high-level engagement between leaders had produced fruitful outcomes and that both government departments and enterprises had signed more than 20 cooperation agreements, covering sectors including trade and investment, financial services, agriculture and food.

Zheng said that in the upcoming Year of the Horse, China will kick-start the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which will boost domestic consumption, expand the supply of quality goods and services, advance innovation-driven development, and deepen reform and opening-up, which will create opportunities for UK businesses where they have a competitive edge.

The ambassador added that the much-anticipated details for visa-free access for UK nationals to China will be announced soon, which will lead to more people-to-people exchanges and more cooperation on education, culture, tourism, and sports.

The positive sentiments were echoed by both hosts and guests, around 500 in total from government, business and academia, most of whom have been involved in China–UK bilateral cooperation and exchanges.

Jack Perry, chairman of the 48 Group, praised the UK prime minister's visit to Beijing, the first in eight years, and said it showed the vigor of an ice-breaking spirit and renewed the bilateral relationship.

"It was a serious engagement undertaken with intent, clarity, and responsibility … and set the tone for a relationship built on trust, long-term thinking, and a real economic substance," said Perry, adding that he recently founded a company, LEC Robotics, to bring Chinese robots to the UK and will visit China in late March to open more opportunities for businesses in the UK.

"Looking ahead to 2026, this is where our focus will be: high-impact delegations, clear sector priorities, engagement that leads to outcomes rather than conversations," he said. "If we do this well, we do not just support trade. We support confidence, we support stability, and we support relationships that are capable of weathering exchange."

The event was co-hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK and the China-Britain Business Council.

Fang Wenjian, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK and general manager of Bank of China London branch, said about Starmer's visit: "We all felt this was a very encouraging and positive start of a new era. While we celebrate this historic visit, the responsibility of our business community is clear. Our task now is to follow through and to deliver and to turn this momentum into sustainable results."

Sebastian Wood, chair of the China-Britain Business Council, said the outcomes from the prime minister's visit left him feeling optimistic and energized, and that the Chinese government's commitments to increase consumption, open up services sectors to foreign companies, and decarbonize its economy also play to the strength of UK businesses.

"Trade between us has grown steadily over the past years, but today we may be entering a new take-off phase as the complementarity between us increases," said Wood. "And the result will be more prosperity, jobs, and growth for the families and households of our two countries as the Chinese proverb goes, the arriving horse brings success."