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• Wen Jiabao plays to the gallery
China's premier, Wen Jiabao, quoting Shakespeare and Bertrand Russell, held a 400-strong audience spellbound at the V&A Museum during a CBBC dinner held in his honour on May 10. Looking extremely relaxed and dispensing with his prepared speech, Premier Wen spoke at length about the state of the Chinese economy and offered some welcome assurance to those present that some pressing challenges would be tackled.
The world knows that James Watt designed the steam engine, but who remembers that it was actually Matthew Bolton who applied the technology and brought it into use? Josiah Wedgwood's designs, originally derived from China, formed the basis of a full set of porcelain bought by Catherine the Great of Russia, and eventually found their way back to China, where they inspired Chinese potters to copy them.
The common thread that links these stories is that the brains behind them didn't receive their due rewards, because there was then no such concept as intellectual property.
Premier Wen: "We cannot slam on the brakes"
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Drawing on these stories from centuries past, China's premier, Wen Jiabao, told the audience at the CBBC dinner that they illustrated precisely why China recognises that it is vital to ensure that intellectual property in modern-day China is duly recognised and ownership fully protected.
He said that the government was taking a number of steps to support its commitment to the protection of intellectual property rights. These included mobilising a force of some half a million enforcement officers throughout the country to "carry out special campaigns to fight against piracy and other violations." Earlier in his speech, which was delivered completely off the cuff, Premier Wen said that the Chinese government was determined to apply the right measures to prevent the economy from overheating. Such measures would be a mixture of economic policy, legal regulation and administrative control, Premier Wen said.
In addition, he said the controls would be timely, appropriate and applied case by case, taking into account the particular circumstances of each sector. "Rather like driving a speeding car, we cannot slam on the brakes; rather we need to apply the brakes slowly. In other words, in adopting those measures, we should not harm or compromise the fundamentals of our economy, and we should maintain a fairly steady and rapid growth."
Underlining the importance which the Chinese government now attaches to management of the economy, with Mr Wen in his delegation to the UK were Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, and Bo Xilai, the minister of commerce, as well as Li Zhaoxing, the foreign minister.
Joint declaration
Premier Wen noted that the relationship between the UK and China was entering a new phase, referring specifically to the statement issued jointly between him and Prime Minister Tony Blair "upgrading our relationship to a level of comprehensive strategic partnership".
Mr Wen referred to the priority areas that the China-UK Task Force has agreed should be featured. These include: investment and trade; fiscal matters and finance; science and technology; education; environmental protection; and agriculture. The Task Force had met earlier that day, immediately before a seminar on the regeneration of the northeast of China, organised by CBBC for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The seminar will be featured in the July/August issue of the Review.
Introducing Premier Wen, Lord Powell, CBBC president, said that in this fiftieth anniversary year British business wanted to see the relationship with China raised to an altogether higher plane. He called for an significant expansion of trade in both directions, but particularly for China to buy more from Britain to help bring trade between the two countries into balance.
Lord Powell: "We want to see a qualitatively better relationship"
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"We know that means our companies have to be more competitive, their products even better, their commitment to the China market even stronger. We accept all that as our responsibility," he said.
"But there are steps which China can take to help – encouraging more purchases from the United Kingdom, and speeding up the liberalisation of the financial services sector." Lord Powell added that CBBC's vision for Britain-China relations went well beyond more trade and investment.
"We also want to see a qualitatively better relationship, which is characterised by more frequent contacts at the highest level in both countries, but also by more people-to-people contacts."
An impromptu visit to Oxford
During a high-profile visit, which included meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair and a visit to Buckingham Palace, Premier Wen also took time out for an unscheduled trip to Oxford where he met both Chinese and English students from Christchurch College. One student, in the throes of writing an essay about the state of trade relations between the US and China, asked Mr Wen for some pointers and advice and was treated to a full 20-minute discourse!
During his meeting with Prime Minister Blair, the leaders agreed to hold annual summits between the UK and China; the prime minister will visit China next year.
And the quotes by Premier Wen? The first was from Hamlet - "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below/Words without thoughts never to heaven go" and the second by Bertrand Russell – "The best of history does not belong to the past and the present but to the future".
CBBC is very grateful to Rolls-Royce, MG Rover Group, BP and Standard Chartered Bank for their generous sponsorship of the CBBC dinner in honour of Premier Wen Jiabao.
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