07 Sep Where Next on UK-China Relations?

The UK’s Evolving Priorities, Geopolitical Developments, and China’s New Strategic Framework

Much has changed since the BFPG published ‘After the Golden Age’, our 2020 report on resetting UK-China relations – in Britain’s domestic landscape, in geopolitical terms, and in China itself.

Taking stock of these developments and what they reveal about the future in their substantial forthcoming report, authors Sophia Gaston and Rana Mitter cut through the noise and shine light on the most pressing areas demanding our attention. They argue that China’s strategic framework is evolving in real time, and it is imperative that Britain understands how and where best to advance our interests and values.

The report authors hosted a special in-person briefing session timed with the publication of the new report, which set out the key findings and recommendations of the report, and their predictions for the next phase of UK-China relations.

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Speakers

Rana Mitter is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, and a Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of several books, including China’s War with Japan: The Struggle for Survival, 1937-1945 (Penguin, 2013). His latest book is China’s Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism (Harvard, 2020). Rana won the 2020 Medlicott Medal for Service to History, awarded by the Historical Association. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Sophia Gaston is the Director of the British Foreign Policy Group. She is a social and political researcher specialising in public opinion, whose research particularly explores threats to governance in advanced liberal democracies. Sophia has previously worked in a number of roles with touch-points with China, including in government in Australia on economic, international and diaspora engagement. Sophia is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Global Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an Academic Fellow at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.