(Source: "Global Times" 2025-04-21)

Reeves, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, made it clear in an interview a few days ago that it would be a "stupid move" to stop contact with China. Reeves pointed out that as the world's second largest economy and the UK's fourth largest trading partner, China's market is crucial to the UK's economic growth. The UK will not join the US isolation policy against China, and emphasized that "pragmatic economic realism" is the guiding principle of UK-China relations. This statement not only highlights the differences between the "decoupling" policies of the United Kingdom and the United States from China, but also conveys the inner voice of many countries when faced with the United States' demand to "choose sides."

Reeves specifically stated his opposition to "decoupling" from China before going to the United States for negotiations. This policy stance is rooted in the deep structural binding of China-UK economic relations. First, from the perspective of industrial chain security, the UK’s new energy vehicle strategy needs China’s support. In 2024, China's new energy vehicles will account for more than 10% of the UK market, which not only provides consumers with more choices, but also effectively supports the UK's green transportation transformation. In addition, as the cost of tariffs on auto parts imported by the UK from the EU increases, Chinese parts have become the key to maintaining the competitiveness of the British auto industry. If the supply chain cooperation with China in the field of new energy vehicles is cut off, the UK's plan to ban the sale of fuel vehicles in 2030 will be very difficult. Second, from the perspective of bilateral w88, China-UK bilateral w88 not only provides a vast market for British companies, but also creates a large number of job opportunities and economic benefits for the UK. Data shows that Chinese-funded enterprises in the UK will contribute more than 115 billion pounds to the British economy in 2023 and create nearly 60,000 jobs. Third, from the perspective of international finance, the British offshore RMB is the largest RMB spot exchange trading center and the second largest offshore RMB center. The latest data from SWIFT shows that the UK currently accounts for more than 39% of the world’s foreign exchange spot transactions in RMB, even higher than the United States and Hong Kong. If exchanges with China are reduced or cut off, it will have a serious impact on the British economy.

In fact, in addition to the United Kingdom, global capital also shows confidence in China's economic development prospects. On the one hand, in the field of direct investment, the actual use of foreign capital is growing. In March 2025, China's actual use of foreign capital increased by 13.2% year-on-year, and the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in the first quarter reached 12,603, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%. Among them, high-tech industries performed outstandingly. For example, foreign investment in the e-commerce service industry increased by 100.5%, and fields such as biopharmaceutical manufacturing and aerospace also experienced significant growth. From the perspective of investment sources, the ASEAN region’s investment in China increased by 56.2%, the EU region increased by 11.7%, while the actual investment in China by Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea increased by 76.8%, 60.5%, 29.1%, and 12.9% respectively. On the other hand, in the bond market, the allocation logic of international capital has changed significantly. The continued expansion of the U.S. fiscal deficit, record debt levels, and policy uncertainty have weakened investors' long-term confidence in U.S. sovereign credit and reduced the traditional safe-haven function of U.S. debt. In contrast, the RMB bond market has become an important choice for international capital to optimize asset portfolios with its stable income level and increasing risk-aversion attributes. As of April 15, the scale of Chinese bonds held by overseas institutions reached 4.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 270 billion yuan from the end of 2024, covering sovereign and commercial institutions in more than 70 countries and regions.

The attitudes of external investors and policymakers send two signals: First, economic rationality is surpassing political interference, and win-win cooperation has become the core logic of global economic governance. In the current international economic system, pragmatic cooperation has gradually replaced the "decoupling" narrative of zero-sum game and has become a key mechanism for stabilizing global industrial and supply chains. Against the background of rising protectionism and rising geopolitical risks, the international community's continued confidence in the Chinese market and willingness to strengthen cooperation are forming an important supporting force for maintaining the stable operation of the global economy. This choice based on market rules reflects countries' clear understanding of the limitations of unilateralist policies and their functional needs for a multilateral cooperation framework.

Second, China’s systemic importance in the global economic landscape has increased significantly, and the international community is forming optimistic expectations for China’s long-term economic development prospects. The dual trend of continued inflows of foreign capital and increased holdings of RMB bonds by overseas institutions is essentially a market-based vote of international capital on China's economic resilience, policy stability and financial market opening process. This not only reflects investors' recognition of the integrity of China's industrial system, technological innovation capabilities and ultra-large-scale market advantages, but also reflects the trust of global economic entities in China's insistence on high-level opening up and the promotion of institutional opening-up policies. The ability to resist risks and the certainty of reform deepening demonstrated by the Chinese economy are being transformed into a long-term value anchor for international capital allocation, thereby consolidating its constructive position in the global economic governance system.

(The authors are respectively professor, doctoral supervisor, director of the Financial Opening and Security Laboratory of the w88 casino of International Economics and w88, w88 casino, and doctoral student of the w88 casino of International Economics and w88)

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