Learning every day On July 6, President Xi Jinping sent a letter of congratulations to the 70th anniversary of the “Icebreaker Journey” of China-UK trade, in which several generations of “icebreakers” were mentioned.
These “icebreakers” are not ice athletes, but entrepreneurs who have broken the ideological ice.
In 1950, at the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a lot of waste was waiting to be rebuilt, and Western countries imposed a trade blockade on my country. The following year, under the impetus of an economist at Cambridge University, Jack Perry, a British businessman in the clothing business, decided to devote himself to trade with New China.
In 1952, through their liaison and promotion, people from British political and business circles participated in the World Economic Conference held in Moscow, which facilitated the conclusion of a trade agreement between China and Britain, and built a bridge of trade between China and Britain.
Ji Chaoding, then secretary-general of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, visited Perry many times, told the story of “The Foolish Old Man Moved Mountains” to Perry and his son, and told them that Beijing also has a group of “people who are not afraid of difficulties, work tirelessly, and firmly believe that China can be revived.” Yu Gong”. This story deeply moved Mr. Perry, and it also gave Stephen Perry, who was only 5 years old at the time, his initial impression of China.
However, when Jack Perry made the decision to go to China to establish trade links, many people around him thought he must be crazy to want to trade with a newly formed and devastated country.
However, Jack Perry still insisted on his decision. In 1953, at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Jack Perry, then chairman of the London Export Company, and 15 representatives of the British business community formed a delegation to visit China, breaking through the “ice layer” of Western countries’ trade with China and opening the earliest UK-China trade dialogue. This group of insightful people with extraordinary courage is known as the first generation of “icebreakers” in Sino-British relations.
The delegation signed a trade agreement totaling 30 million pounds with China National Import and Export Corporation. According to the content of the agreement, China exports tea, rapeseed oil, silk and other agricultural and sideline products to the UK, and the UK exports non-strategic materials such as wool, metals and chemicals to China. The trade agreement cleverly weakens the names of commodities in the gray area of controlled products, which is actually a huge breakthrough in the Western trade blockade.
In the following year, under the organization of Jack Perry, 48 British business people visited China, which was also the predecessor of the “48 UK-China Trade Group”. Since then, the London export company owned by the Perry family has started to conduct economic and trade exchanges with China through Hong Kong.
In 1991, the “British-China Trade 48 Groups” was renamed the “British 48 Groups Club”.
Two years later, Stephen Perry, who had listened to the story of “The Foolish Old Man Moved the Mountain”, succeeded his father as the chairman of the club.
With China’s reform and opening up, Perry and his son have closer ties with China. They have witnessed the rapid development of China’s economy and its ever-changing social outlook, and their ties to China are getting deeper and deeper.
On October 16, 2018, President Xi Jinping met with Stephen Perry at the Great Hall of the People. President Xi emphasized that the Chinese people will never forget the older generation of friendly people who made historic contributions to the development of China-UK economic and trade exchanges in those difficult years. The new generation of “icebreakers” represented by the club continue to devote themselves to the cause of Sino-British friendship with enthusiasm.
On December 18 of the same year, at the meeting celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, Stephen Perry was awarded the China Reform Friendship Medal as “the inheritor of the UK-China friendship and the promoter of the UK-China economic, trade and cultural exchanges”.
In the past 20 years, Stephen Perry has lost count of how many times he has been to China, but what is certain is that it is precisely because of the continuous efforts of several generations of “icebreakers” that China-UK trade has grown from scratch to more than billion-dollar scale. As President Xi said, over the past 70 years, several generations of “icebreakers” have witnessed and actively participated in China’s development and reform, and achieved their own development and growth through mutually beneficial cooperation.
At present, economic globalization is facing headwinds, and the world has entered a new period of turmoil and change. China and the UK need more Perry fathers and sons to inherit the “ice-breaking spirit” of visionary, open cooperation and daring to be the first, and become a bridge and bond to enhance mutual exchanges, cooperation and understanding.
(China Central Radio and Television Network CCTV)
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责编：丛芳瑶 ]
2023-07-08 12:01:00
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