This article is about relations with China especially since 1949. For relations between the Republic of China and the United Kingdom, see Taiwan–United Kingdom relations.
Chinese-United Kingdom relations (simplified Chinese: 中英关系; traditional Chinese: 中英關係; pinyin: Zhōng-Yīng guānxì), more commonly known as British–Chinese relations, Anglo-Chinese relations and Sino-British relations, are the interstate relations between China (with its various governments through history) and the United Kingdom.
Relations between the two nations have gone through ups and downs over the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The UK and China were on opposing sides during the Cold War, and relations were strained during the period Hong Kong was a British territory.[1][2] Following the conclusion of the Cold War and the completion of an agreement regarding Hong Kong's future, a period known as the "Golden Era" of Sino-British relations began with multiple high-level state visits and bilateral trade and military agreements.[3][4] This roughly 20-year period came to an abrupt end during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong democracy protests and the imposition of a highly controversial national security law that quelled civil liberties and freedoms in the city, which was viewed in the UK as a serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.[5][6] In the years following relations have deteriorated significantly, with the UK banning Chinese companies from its 5G network development, participating in Anglo-American military operations in the South China Sea to counter Chinese territorial claims, and sanctioning China for alleged human rights abuses and crimes against humanityinXinjiang.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, despite this, the countries maintain close economic relations,[14] with China being UK's third-largest trading partner as of 2022.[15]
English ships sailed to Macau in the 1620s, which was leased by China to Portugal. The Unicorn, an English merchant ship, sank near Macau and the Portuguese dredged up sakers (cannon) from the ships and sold those to China around 1620, where they were reproduced as Hongyipao.
27 June 1637: Four heavily armed ships under Captain John Weddell, arrived at Macao in an attempt to open trade between England and China. They were not backed by the East India Company, but rather by a private group led by Sir William Courten, including King Charles I's personal interest of £10,000. They were opposed by the Portuguese authorities in Macao (as their agreements with China required) and quickly infuriated the Ming authorities. Later, in the summer, they captured one of the Bogue forts, and spent several weeks engaged in low-level fighting and smuggling. After being forced to seek Portuguese help in the release of three hostages, they left the Pearl River on 27 December. It is unclear whether they returned home.[16][17][18]
1833-35 As London ended the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China, both Tory and Whig governments sought to maintain peace and good trade relations. However Baron Napier wanted to provoke a revolution in China that would open trade. The Foreign Office, led by Lord Palmerston, stood opposed and sought peace.[22]
1839–42 First Opium War, a decisive British victory. The British goal was to enforce diplomatic equality and respect. The dominant British position was reflected by the biographer of the foreign minister Lord Palmerston:
Conflict between China and Britain was inevitable. On the one side was a corrupt, decadent and caste-ridden despotism, with no desire or ability to wage war, which relied on custom much more than force for the enforcement of extreme privilege and discrimination, and which was blinded by a deep-rooted superiority complex into believing that they could assert their supremacy over Europeans without possessing military power. On the other side was the most economically advanced nation in the world, a nation of pushing, bustling traders, of self-help, free trade, and the pugnacious qualities of John Bull.[23]
An entirely opposite British viewpoint was promoted by humanitarians and reformers such as the Chartists and religious nonconformists led by young William Ewart Gladstone. They argued that Palmerston was only interested in the huge profits it would bring Britain, and was totally oblivious to the horrible moral evils of opium which the Chinese government was valiantly trying to stamp out.[24][25][26]
26 March 1861 – In accordance with the treaties, a British legation opens in Beijing (Peking). In the following few years consulates open throughout the Empire, including Hankou (Wuhan), Takao (Kaohsiung), Tamsui (near Taipei), Shanghai and Xiamen.
1868 – The Yangzhou riot against Christian missionaries.
Skilled diplomat Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) negotiated between the West and the Qing Dynasty.
1870–1900 The telegraph system operated by Britain linked London and the main port cities of China.[28]
1886 – After Britain took over Burma, they maintained the sending of tribute to China, putting themselves in a lower status than in their previous relations.[29] It was agreed in the Burma Convention in 1886, that China would recognise Britain's occupation of Upper Burma while Britain continued the Burmese payment of tribute every ten years to Beijing.[30]
1888 - War in Sikkim between the British and Tibetans. By the Treaty of Calcutta (1890), China recognises British suzerainty over northern Sikkim.
1898 – The British obtain a lease on Weihai Harbour, Shandong, to run for as long as the Russians lease Port Arthur. (The reference to the Russians was replaced with one to the Japanese after 1905). An incident occurred where Mail-steamers arrived in Shanghai and dropped off "four young English girls" in December 1898.[32][33][34][35]
1900–1901 – The Boxer Rebellion; attacks on foreign missionaries and converts; repressed by Allied counterforce led by Britain and Japan.
4 May 1919 – The anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement begins in response to the Beiyang government's failure to secure a share of the victory spoils from the leading Allied Powers, after Britain sides with its treaty ally Japan on the Shandong Problem. From this point the ROC leadership moves away from Western models and towards the Soviet Union.
1922-1929: The United States, Japan and Britain supported different warlords. The US and Britain were hostile to the nationalists revolutionary government in Guangzhou (Canton) and supported Chen Jiongming's rebellion. Chinese reactions led to the Northern Expedition (1926–27) which finally unified China under Chiang Kai-shek.[37]
30 May 1925 – Shanghai Municipal Police officers under British leadership kill nine people while trying to defend a police station from Chinese protesters, provoking the anti-British campaign known as the May 30 Movement.
19 February 1927 – Following riots on the streets of Hankou (Wuhan), the Chen-O'Malley Agreement is entered into providing for the hand over of the British Concession area to the Chinese authorities.
1929–1931. The key to Chinese sovereignty was to gain control of tariff rates, which Western powers had set at a low 5%, and to end the extraterritoriality by which Britain and the others controlled Shanghai and other treaty ports. These goals were finally achieved in 1928–1931.[38]
17 May 1935 – Following decades of Chinese complaints about the low rank of Western diplomats, the British Legation in Beijing is upgraded to an Embassy.[39]
1936–37 – British Embassy moves to Nanjing (Nanking), following the earlier transfer there of the Chinese capital.
1937–41 – British public and official opinion favours China in its war against Japan, but Britain focuses on defending Singapore and the Empire and can give little help. It does provide training in India for Chinese infantry divisions, and air bases in India used by the Americans to fly supplies and warplanes to China.[40]
Chiang-Kai-Shek and Winston Churchill, as allies against Japan 1941–1945.
1941–45 – Chinese and British fight side by side against Japan in World War II. The British train Chinese troops in India and use them in the Burma campaign.
6 January 1950 – His Majesty's Government (HMG) removes recognition from the Republic of China. The Nanjing Embassy is then wound down. The Tamsui Consulate is kept open under the guise of liaison with the Taiwan Provincial Government.
Between the UK and the People's Republic of China (1949–present)
The United Kingdom and the anti-Communist Nationalist Chinese government were allies during World War II. Britain sought stability in China after the war to protect its more than £300 million in investments, much more than from the United States. It agreed in the Moscow Agreement of 1945 to not interfere in Chinese affairs but sympathised with the Nationalists, who until 1947 were winning the Chinese Civil War against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).[41]
By August 1948, however, the Communists' victories caused the British government to begin preparing for a Communist takeover of the country. It kept open consulates in CCP-controlled areas and rejected the Nationalists' requests that British citizens assist in the defence of Shanghai. By December, the government concluded that although British property in China would likely be nationalised, British traders would benefit in the long run from a stable, industrialising Communist China. Retaining Hong Kong was especially important; although the CCP promised to not interfere with its rule, Britain reinforced the Hong Kong Garrison during 1949. When the victorious Communist government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Nationalists, Britain—after discussions with other Commonwealth members and European countries—formally recognised the People's Republic of China in January 1950.[41] It was one of the first non-communist states to do so.[42]: 92
6 January 1950 – The United Kingdom recognises the PRC as the government of China and posts a chargé d'affairesad interiminBeijing (Peking). The British expect a rapid exchange of Ambassadors. However, the PRC demands concessions on the Chinese seat at the UN and the foreign assets of the Republic of China.
1950 – British Commonwealth Forces in Korea successfully defend Hill 282 against Chinese and North Korean forces in the Battle of Pakchon, part of the Korean War.
1951 – Chinese forces clash with U.N forces including the British at the Imjin River.
1951 – Chinese forces attacking outnumbered British Commonwealth forces are held back in the Battle of Kapyong.
1951 – British Commonwealth forces successfully capture Hill 317 from Chinese forces in the Battle of Maryang San.
1953 – Outnumbered British forces successfully defend Yong Dong against Chinese forces in the Battle of the Hook.
1954 – The Sino-British Trade Committee formed as semi-official trade body (later merged with the Group of 48).
1954 – A British Labour Party delegation including Clement Attlee visits China at the invitation of then Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai.[45] Attlee became the first high-ranking western politician to meet Mao Zedong.[46]
17 June 1954 – Following talks at the Geneva Conference, the PRC agrees to station a chargé d'affaires in London. The same talks resulted in an agreement to re-open a British office in Shanghai, and the grant of exit visas to several British businessmen confined to the mainland since 1951.[47]
June 1967 – Red Guards break into the British Legation in Beijing and assault three diplomats and a secretary. The PRC authorities refuse to condemn the action. British officials in Shanghai were attacked in a separate incident, as the PRC authorities attempted to close the office there.[49]
23 August 1967 – A Red Guard mob sacks the British Legation in Beijing, slightly injuring the chargé d'affaires Sir Donald Hopson and other staff including Sir Percy Cradock, in response to British arrests of CCP agents in Hong Kong. A Reuters correspondent, Anthony Grey, was also imprisoned by the PRC authorities.[51]
29 August 1967 – Armed Chinese diplomats attack British police guarding the Chinese Legation in London.[52]
13 March 1972 – PRC accords full recognition to the UK government, permitting the exchange of ambassadors. The UK acknowledges the PRC's position on Taiwan.[53]
February 2018 – British Prime Minister Theresa May visits China on a three-day trade mission and meets with China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, continuing the so-called "Golden Era" of China-British relations.[62]
On 23 April 2021, MP's led by Sir Iain Duncan Smith passed a motion declaring the mass detention of Uyghur MuslimsinXinjiang province a genocide. The United Kingdom is the fourth country in the world to make such action. In response, the Chinese Embassy in London said "The unwarranted accusation by a handful of British MPs that there is 'genocide' in Xinjiang is the most preposterous lie of the century, an outrageous insult and affront to the Chinese people, and a gross breach of international law and the basic norms governing international relations. China strongly opposes the UK's blatant interference in China's internal affairs."[68]
January 2024 – The Chinese Ministry of State Security said it had arrested a man accused of collecting state secrets for the British foreign intelligence service MI6. The statement notes that a man with triple citizenship surnamed Huang was trained in intelligence gathering, was equipped with equipment and collected many state secrets during repeated visits to China. No additional information has been provided on the intelligence gathered, when he or she was detained or where they are being held.[71]
April 2024 – The UK criminally charged two individuals under the Official Secrets Act for conducting espionage on behalf of China.[74]
May 2024 – The UK Ministry of Defence's payroll system was targeted multiple times in a Chinese cyberattack in which personnel and their bank details were compromised.[75]
In 1954, UK Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and PRC Premier Zhou Enlai reached an agreement to exchange charges d'affaires.[42]: 93 As a result of the Korean War and other disagreements, the two countries did not exchange ambassadors until 1972.[42]: 93
In January 2017, China Railways and DB Cargo launched the Yiwu-London Railway Line connecting the city of Yiwu and the London borough of Barking, and creating the longest railway freight line in the world. Hong Kong's MTR runs the London's TfL Rail service and has a 30% stake in South Western Railway. In 2017, train manufacturer CRRC won a contract to build 71 engineering wagons for London Underground. This is the first time a Chinese manufacturer has won a railway contract.[77]
The weekly-published Europe edition of China Daily is available in a few newsagents in the UK, and on occasions a condensed version called China Watch is published in the Daily Telegraph.[78] The monthly NewsChina,[79] the North American English-language edition of China Newsweek (中国新闻周刊) is available in a few branches of WHSmith. Due to local censorship, British newspapers and magazines are not widely available in mainland China, however the Economist and Financial Times are available in Hong Kong.[citation needed]
Like the press, China has a limited scope in the broadcasting arena. In radio, the international broadcaster China Radio International broadcasts in English over shortwave which isn't widely taken up and also on the internet. The BBC World Service is available in China by shortwave as well, although it is often jammed(See Radio jamming in China). In Hong Kong, the BBC World Service is relayed for eight hours overnight on RTHK Radio 4 which on a domestic FM broadcast.[citation needed]
On television, China broadcasts both its two main English-language news channels CGTN and CNC World. CGTN is available as a streaming channel on Freeview, while both are available on Sky satellite TV and IPTV channels. Mandarin-speaking Phoenix CNE TV is also available of Sky satellite TV. Other TV channels such as CCTV-4, CCTV-13, CGTN Documentary and TVB Europe are available as IPTV channels using set-top boxes.[citation needed]
British television isn't available in China at all, as foreign televisions channels and networks are not allowed to be broadcast in China. On the other hand, there is an interest in British television shows such as Sherlock and British television formats like Britain's Got Talent (China's Got Talent (中国达人秀)) and Pop Idol (Super Girl (超级女声)).[citation needed]
Sir Robert Hart was a Scots-Irish statesman who served the Chinese Imperial Government as Inspector General of Maritime Customs from 1863 to 1907.
George Ernest Morrison resident correspondent of The Times, London, at Peking in 1897, and political adviser to the President of China from 1912 to 1920.
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