Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative Ling Ji chaired the discussion, and His Majesty's Trade Commissioner Lewis Neal and CBBC Managing Director for China Tom Simpson delivered opening remarks.

The roundtable brought together 37 senior executives from 29 CBBC member companies, representing a broad range of sectors, including Swire, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, IHG, RELX, AstraZeneca, Diageo, Schroders, Prudential and bp. 

Ling Ji noted that China’s economy continues to make steady progress while advancing towards higher-quality and innovation-driven growth, providing broad opportunities for foreign-invested enterprises. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will prioritise the further opening-up of the services sector. As a leading services trade nation, the UK is well placed to benefit from this agenda, and UK companies are encouraged to seize the opportunities created by China’s unilateral opening of the services sector, particularly by expanding investment in areas such as consumption, green transition and technological innovation. China stands ready to work with the UK to deepen cooperation in services and to foster new drivers of growth in bilateral economic and trade relations.

Lewis Neal thanked MOFCOM and CBBC for organising the roundtable and recounted the positive series of bilateral engagements last year, including the resumed Economic and Financial Dialogue and the Joint Economic and Trade Commission. The Trade Commissioner also called attention to the complementarity between the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy and China's draft proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan demonstrating opportunities for increasing UK-China business activity.

Tom Simpson praised the healthy growth in trade between the UK and China, recognising the 5.7% growth in overall trade in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2025. CBBC's Managing Director also raised some of the recent key focuses of the council's member companies and identified areas to strengthen collaboration with their Chinese partners in 2026. 

The senior business leaders in attendance provided recent updates on their company's activity in China and had the opportunity to raise challenges they face. Topics ranged from tariffs and IP protection to qualifications recognition and market access. The Chinese government officials present responded to the issues raised and suggested expanding communication on several topics.

Senior officials from MOFCOM, General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) and the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) attended the meeting.