Britain still has some way to go before reaping the full benefit in exports from China’s rapid growth but there are hopes the country’s urbanisation and rising middle class will spur demand for British branded goods and services.
“We are building from a low base,” said John Cridland, director-general of the CBI employers’ organisation. “There is tremendous potential – we just have to get more emphatic about selling it.”
The Chinese already have a taste for Jaguar Land Rover cars, Burberry coats, the music of Adele and the work of British architects, he added. “I am pretty sure that, as liberalism gets hold, they will want British insurance and financial and professional services too.”