Peter Wilson

New Ambassador to China

Sebastian Wood had his first day at work as our new Ambassador to China today.  If you would like to read what he says, and see what he looks like, click here!  www.ukinchina.fco.gov.uk

Posted at 11:14 25 January 2010 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

China, the UK and Haiti: Making sacrifices for peace and security

This week was supposed to be a celebration of UK - China - Africa co-operation on peacekeeping.  A group of trainers and trainees from the UK, China, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal are currently working together at Langfang, the Chinese Police Policekeeping Centre outside Beijing.  The aim of the programme is to prepare Chinese and African senior police for leadership positions in UN missions.
 
But the good atmosphere was shattered by news from Haiti that 8 Chinese peacekeepers, including two closely involved with our joint programme, had been killed by the earthquake.  It is likely that UK staff were also killed in the same UN headquarters building, along with tens of thousands of Haitians in the capital and beyond.  This disaster has brought further misery to a country that is trying to emerge from conflict and underlined the dangers faced by UN peacekeepers working in difficult circumstances across the world.  We can only hope that the ongoing humanitarian efforts, including by Chinese and British workers, can help avoid further deaths. 
 
Peacekeeping takes skills of communication, organisation, discipline and bravery.   Two Chinese colleagues with whom we worked, Guo Baoshan and Li Xiaoming displayed these skills.  Mr Guo launched the UK-China Peacekeeping English programme several years ago and was respected by all who worked with him. Mr Li studied at Warwick University last year on a Chevening Scholarship and inspired his fellow students. 
 
We will remember Mr Guo and Mr Li's sacrifices for peace and security, as well as the other victims of the earthquake in Haiti.  And in their memory we will maintain our enthusiasm for international co-operation on peacekeeping.

Posted at 16:43 19 January 2010 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

UK@Shanghai Expo

Just in Shanghai to see how our plans for Shanghai's Expo are shaping up. (See Carma's blog here a few weeks ago.). This will be the world's biggest ever Expo, when it opens on May 1.  And the UK site is starting to look amazing.

The site is a bold mixture of wide open space, where people can gather and where performances will take place every day, and covered walkways leading to a closed pavilion, that is now becoming one of the most unusual buildings I have ever seen.

This space tells many stories, and I really want to experience the whole thing for myself when it is ready. Seeing it take shape on the banks of the Huangpu River, the pavilion seemed to me like an animal coming out of hybernation.  I am posting a couple of pictures of what the structure looks like now. But photos don't show how dynamic the building will be. Over sixty thousand acrylic spikes move. They bring light to the inside in the day, and to the outside, from small lamps buried in the spikes, at night.  Embedded at the interior end of each spike is one of over 6000 types of seed, from the Millennium Seedbank at Kew and the Institute of Botany in Kunming (a province from where an astonishing number of British flowering plants originally came).   

This space, and the whole Expo, will be open until 31 October.  Six months.  I really hope you see it!  Do look at the website - www.ukshanghaiexpo.com - for the virtual flythrough, and the competition to find a nickname for the site.

Posted at 10:51 15 January 2010 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Chongqing's Bang Bang Men

Guest blog from Sean Winnett, our Human Rights Officer at the Embassy

I've just got back from a couple of days in Chongqing, a large city in south-west China. We have a British Consulate-General there that celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. I went to find out more about the life of migrant workers, people from rural areas who have come to find work in a city that is changing at breakneck speed.

China's "floating population" of migrant workers is visible in all the major economic centres and has made a massive contribution to the country's economic development. Yet, as well as being a long way from home, these workers often do demanding work whilst facing discrimination, poor standards of accommodation and no social security net. For those that bring their families, finding education and healthcare can be difficult.

I went with Alex Needham, our political consul in Chongqing, to meet Mr Zhang, a local "bang bang man". Chongqing's ubiquitous bang bang men act as porters, ferrying goods around the city. They get their name from the bamboo poles they use to carry their loads. I wanted to find out more about his experience as a migrant worker. Mr Zhang told me he spent three or four hours a day working. The rest of the day was spent waiting on the streets, always with his bamboo carrying-pole in hand. He showed us his accommodation: a small room at the back of a residential tower block. The room was home to about 30 other men, all paying 45 RMB a month (about £4.50). He told us that his daughter's generation would not live and work like this; they would benefit from more education and were better placed to find work in shops or factories. It was tough, but the 1,000 RMB he made each month made a big difference to his family back in rural Sichuan province. He was 55 years old and planned to retire and move back to his family when he was 60.

Things are getting better for migrant workers in Chongqing. Government initiatives are helping, like the Chongqing Sunshine Dormitory that we visited where workers can stay for as little as 1.5 RMB a night. But for unskilled workers like Mr Zhang and his fellow bang bang men, attempts to benefit from China's economic development mean getting used to a harsh way of life.

Posted at 11:24 14 January 2010 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Beijing snow

Beijing has been as snowy as Britain at the start of the New Year.  It is normally a dry place. There has not been this much snow since the early 1950s.  My children love it.  The lake near our house is an icy snow tray.  The trees are covered in thick icing.  And the powdery snow itself is perfect for making snow angels (you know, when you lie down and move your legs and arms about to make a shape around you?), even if the snowmen are a bit flaky.

For people working, or trying to get back from other parts of China or abroad, it has been very tough. Temperatures were down to -15 degrees centigrade last night. Many are working hard to clear the streets in their neighbourhood, or in front of their shops.   Over 100 planes were delayed at the Capital Airport.  Some highways outside Beijing are still blocked.  My ears stung under my hat as I biked home, but there is not much traffic, so my skidding didn't matter much.  Most children were supposed to be back at school on Monday  - many ended up with an unexpected day off.  But the sun is out, and the sky is bright blue.  So things should be heating up. 

Posted at 11:03 05 January 2010 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

China's top Ambassadors in London

Earlier this week, China's top Ambassadors, to the EU, UN, US, Russia, France and Germany came to London for talks with the top team at the Foreign Office, which the Foreign Secretary attended, and which was hosted by Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis. It was a really unusual, high quality, event. Our Ambassadors came to China for the first step of this initiative, a year and a half ago.

The main story is on the FCO's website.

(the supersized Costa Coffee in front of the Foreign Secretary belongs to our head of planning, in case you were wondering).

Reading some of our London impressions from the event afterwards, I was struck how much we have to talk about, and how interested our top team is about Chinese thinking. They covered non-proliferation, reforming the international system, and how China and the EU should build our relationship - huge issues, and shared challenges. They also had a wide ranging discussion of soft power. We are looking forward to following all this up with China's Foreign Ministry in the coming year.

The other thing that struck me was the breadth, as well as the depth, of the wider community in the UK for whom China is now a core interest. The Permanent Secretary (top official) in the Foreign Office gave the whole team dinner, in the British Museum, with some of our thought leaders, from the world of business, culture and diplomacy. That crowd would have been very different - and far easier to choose! - even five years ago.

Leader of the Chinese delegation, Vice Minister Zhang Zhijun, said that he would welcome another round, in China, perhaps next year. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do!

Posted at 07:35 10 December 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Four years in China (Guest blog from David Ward)

I am David Ward, head of the Internal Politics Team in Beijing.  As a guest blogger on this spot, I will be new to many readers.  But I have been in Beijing for almost four years, working at the British Embassy, and since my time in Beijing is almost up, Peter has kindly asked me this week to say a few things about my experiences in China.

Four years is a long time to spend in any one place.  Just long enough normally to put down roots and feel at home.  But it’s something I feel even more in Beijing than many other places because although the city is an ancient one, I do feel like the city has grown up around me.  In the four years I have been here, the physical face of the city has changed every year, especially here, where I look out onto the buildings of the Central Business District, the Guomao towers and the new CCTV building.  As I walk around with new arrivals, I find myself telling them “Of course, none of this was here when I first arrived,” and feeling like the sort of old people who used to tell me as a child how much the world had changed around them.  It certainly is a different city.

A lot has also happened in those four years.  Most memorable will of course be the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.  For a couple of months last year, the whole city felt like it was on holiday, with smiling volunteers on almost every street helping out lost tourists and sending them in the right direction.  The friendly crowds at all the events gave the visitors a lasting impression of a confident and modern city.

But the greatest privilege of living here for four years has been the opportunity to explore China – a huge and historic country, with the scale and diversity of a continent.  From the unique historic sights of Beijing, the deserts of Xinjiang and the jungles of Yunnan, China has a wealth of nature and history which truly deserves celebrating.   But more than this physical endowment, it is the chance to meet such a variety of people through my work which has given me the most precious memories. 

My work has taken me to all corners of China, meeting local people in all circumstances, and giving me a rare insight into the lives and challenges of ordinary people all over the country.  These photographs are just one example: a small project which the Embassy helped fund to produce booklets on health and hygiene in Tibetan language, allowing these communities in Qinghai Province to understand for the first time how to protect themselves against some basic diseases and improve their quality of life.  Hopefully, it is an impact which will last all the lives of the young children reading the books.  And it is being able to make contributions like this, which is the most rewarding aspect of working in international relations.

Posted at 13:30 03 December 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Beijing's battle of the bicycles

When I was last posted in China, in the mid 90s, there was no doubt that bicycles were still winning the urban transport wars. There were plenty of cars by then, but bikes ruled the road. They were heavy Flying Pigeons, or Forevers. They often had an adult passenger on the back. If they wanted to stop the cars, and just carry on going, it was easy. A stranded car surrounded by a sea of cycling commuters was a common sight.

Now I am a more lonely cyclist on the streets of East Beijing. New cars are pouring onto Beijing's streets at the rate of about 1,500 a day. There are still a good number of sensible cyclists - they know that even for quite long distances, it is faster than a car in rush hour.  But most people are in cars now, and an increasing number use the subway. The Beijing metro system - which ten years ago only had two lines -  is now rapidly catching up with the London underground. A new line opened last month, that can take you right across town to the Summer Palace.   

Right now it is below freezing in Beijing - some of the coldest weather for 40 years, and wierdly early snow (some man made, to fix a drought, but more recently it's been natural). I still like biking. But, with less and less hair, I really need the hat.

Posted at 08:41 18 November 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[4]

China's view of itself, and a UK perspective

The latest Pew Attitudes Survey data for 2009 is available on their website.  They poll globally, and annually.  It makes interesting reading. 

According to the survey, China remains very positive about its future direction  - more so than any other country surveyed.  87% of those surveyed in China think it is going in the right direction, compared to 86% last year - not bad in a financial crisis.  There is an urban bias in the figures - Pew points this out in the fine print.  But compared to even five years ago, using the same methodology, this is a significant improvement.
 
The UK is the country in Europe with the most positive view of China.  That has been true since Pew started asking the question in the UK, in 2005.  The numbers go up and down.  But the trend is pronounced.

Posted at 10:26 05 November 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[1]

China: Shanghai Expo

Today we have a guest blog from Carma Elliot, our Consul General in Shanghai:  

Expo fever has definitely hit Shanghai, with a gathering last month in the city of over 800 senior officials from around the world, charged with delivering the largest Expo the world has ever seen. Among them, Ian McCartney MP, the UK's Commissioner-General for Expo.

It's just under 200 days until the start of the Shanghai World Expo. The Expo mascot, Hai Bao (or "sea baby") pops up everywhere, in official gifts handed out by Shanghai's mayor and party secretary.  Here he is:

Taking place over 6 months from May to October 2010, and with over 300 official participants (countries, cities and international organisations), this is the largest Expo the world has ever seen. An area of over 5 square kilometres straddling the Huangpu river which lies at the heart of Shanghai is ready to host over 70 million visitors over 184 days.

The Chinese government has invested over $5 billion in the Expo site alone; and another $45 billion in infrastructure projects across the city. This investment, almost double that in the Beijing Olympics last year, is preparing Shanghai for its own place on the world stage next year. This Expo is particularly important to the UK, falling half way between the last and the next Olympics, in London in 2012.

For the UK, Thomas Heatherwick has designed a unique, sculptural pavilion: a six-storey high wooden structure, pierced by 60,000 acrylic rods. It is a bold statement of the UK's ambition to showcase the British nation's creativity and innovation to a vast audience. 

The team placed the first of these rods in the pavilion structure on 20 October, with the sun shining down to mark the occasion. 

The overall theme of the Expo, "Better City, Better Life", speaks of the challenges and opportunities for people across the globe, as urbansiation and rapid social change transform our understanding of our environment and social landscapes. With so many participants, Expos can be competitive, and particularly in China, with everybody vying to secure attention in the world's soon to be second biggest economy.

For the UK Expo team (divided virtually between London and Shanghai) putting together the UK's presence at Expo is an enormous challenge, but full of opportunity too. Last week, for example, we took the time to brainstorm how to secure at least some of the UK celebrities which the Chinese public will expect to see over that six months. And we are looking forward to working with our Chinese partners to deliver an excellent programme at Shanghai Expo!

Carma

Posted at 12:38 26 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Diplomacy for five year olds

This morning I spoke to my son's reception class in Beijing about my job. I think it was my hardest audience. He and most of his classmates speak three languages - Chinese, English, and one other. Most of them have lived in at least one other country in their lives.
 
Here's what we talked about.
 
I said that my job as a diplomat is to help countries work together, and to stop them fighting. I tried to explain why my job matters.
 
The class thought countries are a bit like people. They have relationships with each other. Sometimes they are friends, sometimes they don't get along. Sometimes they argue. Occasionally they fight. If they do, that is very bad, because people can die.
 
To do my job well, I have to try to understand why other countries think as they do. Countries, like people, have choices. I try to help my country, and the country where I am working, make good choices. If we do, then the people who live in both our countries will be safer, richer, and happier.
 
In the last five years my family has lived in four countries. Britain. Portugal, where my wife is from.  Pakistan, our first family foreign posting. And now China. I explained how my son helps me in his work, by being a special, friendly boy, who is kind to everyone who comes to our house. That helps me make friends, too.
 
My country, Britain, thinks that diplomacy is important. We send diplomats to almost every country in the world. We join as many groups as we can, to work with other countries on common problems. We learn a lot of languages.  I speak Chinese, French, and some Portuguese. But I do not speak Portuguese nearly as well as my son.
 
Coming to China is a big job for me. China is a huge country. More people live here than in any other country.  Before the children in my son's class were born, China was still quite poor. Now it is growing very fast - even faster than my son. That is not just changing China, but changing the whole world. People from other countries who know a lot about China will have important jobs to do in the future.
 
I like my job. Every four years, I get to learn about another place, and meet new people. It is a bit like going back to school. If I am doing my job well, I meet interesting people. If I do my job really well, then China and Britain find more ways to work with each other, and together we find ways to make the world a better place.
 
My son and his class told me about some of the conflicts they get involved in, and how they sort them out.  And they told me ways they negotiate, too.  They will make a great generation of diplomats - whatever they choose to do.

Posted at 10:21 23 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[2]

CHINA: CLIMATE CHANGE BLOG ACTION DAY

David Concar, our climate change counsellor at the Embassy, is launching his own blog today - blog action day on climate change.  You can find it at http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/concar    and will soon be able to read it in English and Chinese on the British Embassy website www.ukinchina.fco.gov.uk . 

Climate change is a big deal for our China network.  We have massively increased our work here on climate change in the last two years. It is a top priority for us at home in the UK, and working with other significant players round the world. 

Posted at 14:24 15 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

Working with China on the Arms Trade Treaty

When it comes to the ATT, there are two really important groups of countries.  The first and most important is those countries that most suffer from the negative effects of the international unregulated trade in conventional weapons.  The second is the biggest sellers of arms.  As is often noted, there is a correlation between the biggest arms selling countries and the Permanent 5 of the UN Security Council. 
 
That is why we see a dialogue between P5 members at all levels, including between NGOs, as an important part of international efforts towards an ATT - efforts which received the support of 147 countries at the UN last year.  We believe that an effective ATT can not only make the world a safer place, but also be consistent with a commercially successful international defence trade. 
 
That is the conversation we are having with Chinese experts and it is a very interesting one.  Indeed, not only are we discussing the potential benefits to our respective defence trades, but also to our wider trade in the developing world, where stability and reducing the impact of conflict are key to mutual benefit.  Finally, addressing the unregulated trade in conventional arms should make our peacekeepers and nationals working overseas safer.

Posted at 13:08 07 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[1]

China's 60th Anniversary

The People's Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949.  The sixtieth anniversary is a huge day, and will see a big celebration across China.  The Prime Minister recorded a message for an event at the Chinese Embassy in London to celebrate the anniversary - you can read it, in Chinese or English, or watch it, on the Embassy's website  - all the links are from the front page, at  www.ukinchina.fco.gov.uk  

Posted at 14:03 29 September 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[1]

A guest blog, from Alex(andra) Needham, at our Consulate General in Chongqing

 

Yesterday I revisited Shuangxi village on the outskirts of urban Chongqing, where our Foreign Secretary David Miliband went in February 2008 to see a slice of rural China.  It is not rural any more. Eighteen months later, the old village was gone. On the hillside behind, a new district of high-rise modern apartment buildings had been built. Street lighting was provided by solar panels and fairly large numbers of old farmers sat around, watching the world go by.

Villagers told us the old village was to be redeveloped for tourism. They had been asked to rent their land to a co-operative for an annual income of 1700 RMB per household member (about £170). This process is an integral part of Chongqing's Balanced Urban-Rural Development pilot project: farmers are encouraged to rent their land use rights to large scale co-operatives to boost development in rural areas. The co-operatives often provide job opportunities as well as as an additional rental income.

We met with one farmer whom we had last seen in February 2008. From living in an old stone house with almost no modern conveniences 18 months before, he and his family now occupied a 120m2 brand new apartment in a high-rise block. The flat was furnished with newly-bought modern furniture and appliances (TV, electric fan, water cooler, telephone).  He said he was now too old (late 50s) to work as a migrant worker - no one would employ him. He spent his days walking around the compound and chatting with neighbours. He said his life was better now - it was easier as he had to do less physical labour. But he did worry about money, and that his economic power couldn't keep up with the new lifestyle he now found himself in. His wife and daughter both worked in urban Chongqing.  Previously food was free, but now with no land he had to pay for it.

Other villagers we spoke to thought their lives were getting better. One shopkeeper said the gap between urban and rural incomes was fair. All depended on the kind of lifestyle you chose. He and his wife had worked as migrant workers in Guangdong for 11 years, but migrant worker life was physically tough. They had decided to return home to their village for a quieter, easier life. Business was good with lots of construction work in the village. There was now little difference in wages between a migrant's salary in Guangdong and what they could earn in rural Chongqing. The government was also giving rural people more subsidies (pension, rural medical insurance).  This should help to achieve two key Government aims - reducing disparities, and boosting consumption.  It will also give more people a better life.

Posted at 13:43 29 September 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]