“Obviously, what I want to know is, if [the JETCO] were to be reinstated, would it be a substantive way to resolve some of these issues?” Reynolds added.
Britain an ‘outlier’
The discussion between the pair comes hot on the heels of new U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s trip to Beijing and Shanghai this month. Plans are being drawn up for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to visit the country in early 2025.
Compared to other G7 countries “the U.K. is an outlier by how little engagement we have had” with China, Reynolds said.
Despite deep tensions between the United States and China “many senior U.S. politicians and Cabinet members are regularly engaging with Chinese counterparts,” he said. “It’s a lot more than us.”
And he added: “China is simultaneously a significant part of the global economy, our sixth largest trading partner in the U.K., and at the same time it’s not the same as a European country or the U.S. or Canada, or the conversation we’ve been having with Brazil here.
“It’s a relationship where sometimes you’ve got to have quite difficult conversations because you’re unhappy with moves on the Chinese side, but at the same time, where co-operation is possible with China, trade is [a] space where you’d expect that to be taking place.”
