CRI听力:Xi Jinping's Reuters Interview Sets a Promising Tone: Expert

Stephen Perry, chairman of UK's 48 Group Club was among the first to read about Xi Jinping's interview with Reuters. As a pioneering figure known for his deep business ties with China, Stephen believes it's important to understand the Chinese approach to official interviews.

"When Chinese leaders speak, they speak modestly, carefully, and they don't make any promises, they don't paint fancy pictures about the future except in the most broad and general terms. But I can tell you that I'm absolutely certain that the content of China's next Five-Year Plan and the opportunities it provides for the UK will be without precedent. And Britain will have better prospects for relations and trade relations with China than Germany has enjoyed for the last 25 years if we prove our desirous for business."

There has been a concentrated media focus on China since the state visit by the Chinese President to the UK was announced. China's slowing down economy was one of the most debated issues in the UK. Stephen says foreign media has translated New Normal to mean 7% growth this year, but that's a very narrow view of what New Normal means.

"New Normal is about a period of transition into a managed market economy and the period of transition will last until 2021 at least. So the arrival of a growth rate about 7% may take two or three years to settle down. It maybe a little higher, a little bit lower, what President Xi was saying was that we are comfortable that we are meeting the challenges that have come along and at the moment we are comfortable with the progress we are making but we are not complacent and ready to meet bigger challenges ahead."

Stephen was also impressed that the Chinese President made a point of mentioning this year being the beginning of the second decade of the China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership. He believes that this visit is setting a promising tone for the future China-UK relations.

"It's not just a state visit by a President who will talk about the current trade and or relations between the two countries. He is saying these are particularly important times for strategic partnerships. The term strategic means that both countries have matching needs and if they can find ways to make those investment opportunities happen then much bigger opportunities will develop from them."