Businesses welcome UK foreign secretary's south China visit

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper's visit to the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen this week drew a warm welcome from local business leaders, who called it a significant moment for China-U.K. technology and trade cooperation.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper addresses a business group in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, June 3, 2026. [Photo by Jay Ian Birbeck]

The stop in Shenzhen, home to tech giants including Huawei and Tencent, came on the final day of a three-day China trip that included the 11th China-U.K. Strategic Dialogue with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a meeting with Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing.

The visit was the first by a U.K. foreign secretary to south China in 20 years, when Margaret Beckett held the role.

Speaking to a business group in Shenzhen, Cooper cited growing cooperation on technology and AI as one of the key reasons for her visit.

"We have been having discussions about the potential for AI and the technology developed in each of our countries — and the potential that has for the future, for productivity, for growth and for improvements in areas like health care," Cooper said. "We have also been discussing the challenges and risks and the need to look at stronger governance, and safety and security considerations for AI, including through the United Nations."

Cooper also met Shenzhen Party secretary Jin Lei and toured a laboratory at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society, where she was shown AI applications in health care and power grids.

Mark Clayton, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce South China, said the visit marked a long-overdue recognition of the region's importance.

"For those of us who have spent the better part of two decades arguing that the U.K.'s commercial relationship with China runs as much through the Greater Bay Area as through Beijing or Shanghai, this is a milestone worth marking," he said.

Clayton, who also serves as group chief financial officer of manufacturer China 2 West Services, said the visit carried particular weight for businesses embedded in the region's supply chains.

"South China is where many of the U.K.'s most critical supply chains begin, and sustained, senior-level engagement gives our members the confidence they need to keep trading and investing," he said.

Mark Clayton, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce South China, speaks with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at a business reception in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, June 3, 2026. [Photo by Jay Ian Birbeck]

Benjamin King, chair of the British Chamber of Commerce South China's Supply Chain Working Group, said the trip sent a reassuring signal to businesses with Chinese supply chains.

"Businesses have been telling us about the importance of China within their supply chains, and the visit will instill confidence that the U.K. government remains positively engaged with China," he said.

King pointed to the working group's own research to show that British businesses are deepening their commitment to the region. A supply chain resilience survey conducted by the group found 83% of U.K.-linked firms in south China plan to maintain or expand their China presence over the next three years, with none planning to exit.

Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, who attended the Shenzhen event, told CGTN the choice of location reflected a natural complementarity between the two economies.

"The U.K. is an economy of services — software, AI, digital, financial and professional services," he said. "It's inevitably going to be a place like Shenzhen that the foreign secretary would visit rather than a sort of industrial heartland."

The visit came against a backdrop of strengthening bilateral trade. China-U.K. trade reached $103.73 billion in 2025, up 5.3% year on year, according to China's foreign ministry, with services exports from the U.K. to China hitting an all-time high.

Guangdong province alone accounted for over one-fifth of the total trade the previous year, according to South, Guangdong's official English-language news platform.

Speaking at the China-U.K. Strategic Dialogue in Beijing on June 2, Wang Yi said bilateral exchanges and cooperation had fully resumed following years of strained ties, calling for stronger high-level engagement and more tangible outcomes from the relationship.