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• Sir John Keswick probably did more than anyone else to establish SBTC as a force in Sino-British trade relations, writes Hilary Footer.
John Keswick headed the great Scottish trading house of Jardine Matheson, first from Shanghai, where he led the British commercial community, and later from Hong Kong.
As chairman of the China Association in the early 1960s (one of the four original sponsors of SBTC), John Keswick established a strong SBTC presence at the Canton Trade Fair. This presence assumed even more significance during the difficult years of the Cultural Revolution when the Chinese declined to allow British commercial office staff from Beijing to visit Guangzhou and exhibitions were non-existent at that time.
He was the driving force behind the SBTC sponsorship of the British Industrial Exhibition in Beijing in 1964, which gave the British the opportunity to be only the second non-Communist country to show goods in China since 1949. A Chinese speaker, friendly and outgoing, he was respected by British and Chinese alike.
John Keswick meets Zhou Enlai, 1973
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As president of SBTC from 1963 to 1973, John Keswick visited China many times, often accompanied by businessmen. During a period when diplomats hardly spoke to each other, his role cannot be underestimated. With his background as former leader of the British commercial community in Shanghai, and later as a British government official in wartime Chongqing, where he had known Zhou Enlai, he was able to become an accepted go-between. SBTC had formal, high-level discussions each time he visited China, and on several occasions with Premier Zhou Enlai. In having such access, SBTC was envied by the diplomats of many other countries. He maintained links with the Chinese Commercial Office resident in London during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s when trade relations were difficult because of the volatile political situation in China.
He was influential, too, in discussions with high-level aircraft delegations. In 1971 Hawker Siddeley announced that the company had contracted to supply six Tridents to China. China had already taken 12 British ‘Viscounts' second-hand from Pakistan after Sir John had assured Chinese ministers that spares, services and supplies would be available. He was knighted in 1972.
When Lord Nelson became president of SBTC in 1973, Sir John agreed to stay on as his vice-president and served in this capacity until his accidental death in 1982.
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