Osborne, on top after China, now faces challenges

Chancellor, seemingly a shoo-in for next prime minister, has made a few missteps domestically

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was riding high after his high-profile visit to China in September, spending time in Beijing, Shanghai and Xinjiang, meeting with key Chinese leaders and preparing the groundwork for President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United Kingdom last month.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, wisely or unwisely, depending on your point of view, announced after the last general election which swept him to power with a 12-seat majority, and left the opposition Labour Party in disarray, announced he would not serve a third term after his current tenure expires in May 2020.

With the Labour Party conducting its own civil war, the way seemed clear for Osborne, like Cameron an old Etonian and an Oxford graduate, to step up and head the Conservative Party in a widely anticipated electoral victory in 2020.

After all, he has managed to rebuild the UK economy from the global crash of 2008, with employment at a high not seen for 10 years, trim the worst excesses of the last Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, and bring home the bacon with the trip to China.

That trip gave him a series of boosts - the Chinese leadership beamed with pleasure when he made positive noises about the Shanghai stock exchange despite the market slump, talked up the Chinese economy in terms of its relationship with the rest of the world, and announced Britain's intention to become China's biggest trade partner in the West.

China also scored a major public relations coup, when Osborne paid a visit to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, whose capital is Urumqi and which lies on the proposed modern Silk Route as outlined in Xi's Belt and Road Initiative.

Britain, affirmed Osborne, intends to play a key role in the trade-and-infrustructure initiative.

Xi's subsequent visit to the UK, deemed a runaway success on both sides, was due in part to the groundwork laid by Osborne - deals worth as much as 40 billion pounds ($61 billion; 57 billion euros) were announced in the fields of nuclear power, infrastructure, sport, information technology, culture and finance.

Plus the UK is looking to Chinese companies to bid for participation in the high speed rail project linking London and the north of the country.

All this undoubtedly gave him a massive boost over his potential rivals for the prime minister's job; London Mayor Boris Johnson, once seen as a favorite, has slipped badly with a series of gaffes and ill-timed comments, while Theresa May, the powerful home secretary, is battling to contain a migrant crisis while at the same time endeavoring to cut police budgets. Not a popular image builder.

But it's the government's determined austerity plans, crafted by Osborne and endorsed by Cameron, that are revealing some cracks in Osborne's image.

Although the Conservatives have a clear majority, unexpected opposition in the country's House of Lords, the country's unelected upper house, means that a key law that would slash welfare payments known as tax credits was thrown out, and a furious Osborne is having to go back to the drawing board.

But the Chinese leadership, after establishing a strong rapport with the UK government, can be pretty sure that it will be Osborne they deal with after 2020.

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party is, to be honest, regarded as a joke, with his senior members publicly divided over such key issues as Britain's nuclear deterrent, the economy, the welfare state and numerous other domestic matters.

The Liberal Democrats, once in coalition with the Conservatives in the last government, now have only eight members of Parliament - barely enough, sniffed one critic, to fit into a large London taxi. Lurking in the wings is the Scottish National Party, which decimated Labour in Scotland in the May election.

So if Osborne can avoid any more embarrassments like the tax credit fiasco, he may well be the man China does business with in years to come.

The author is managing editor of China Daily Europe, based in London. Contact the writer at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com