Peter Wilson

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]