Brexit Britain and China-Leveraging on resources to build a partnership

By Sam Jacobs

Brexit is an opportunity for Britain to recalibrate and present a more complete picture of its capability.

For the average Chinese visitor, Britain largely positions itself well as a place for shopping for luxury goods, sightseeing, private schooling, further education and buying properties. Such business lines produce consistent sources of revenue for UK Plc. However, Britain is less good at positioning itself as a place for more specialist areas such as advanced engineering, healthcare, life sciences, environmental and digital technologies. Transaction here is more difficult due to the complexity of subject matter and degree of cross-cultural competence.

People watch dragon dance to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year at Trafalgar Square in London, Britain, on Jan. 29, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

Cross-cultural competence is a two-way street. Whilst both countries have absorbed and continue to absorb international influences, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the core cultural and linguistic systems are not cognate.  This has implications for the type and depth of transaction - the more layered it is, then the greater the need for cross-cultural dexterity. This is relevant to Britain because there is a perception amongst many British that translation per se equates to effective communication – it does not. Content needs to be curated with an appreciation of conceptual differences, the degree of prior knowledge and the density of the subject matter. So even when a mutually understood and agreed problem is found to be worth resolving, the subsequent solution process will need to be carefully navigated with a keen sense of the trust variables and how they are to be managed.

Britain’s Achilles has long been its indifference towards learning foreign languages. This has been undervalued and underinvested domain, and it harms Britain’s prospects. The British Empire may have been responsible for creating c1.14bn non-native speakers but it has provided generations of British an excuse not to learn foreign languages. The world has moved on, and so too must Britain. Nelson Mandela observed: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”  In light of Brexit, Britain needs to learn to talk to the heart. This is about people-to-people exchange leading to better shared outcomes.

The key to increasing Britain’s effectiveness in business with China is to reciprocate the effort.  China places immense value on its students who come to Britain and study technical subjects (in English), upskill and gain valuable experience. In light of this, British business leaders should be making a clarion call for developing multi-skilled native British Chinese-speaking talent.

Sadly, a few years ago, I attended a breakfast in London where a British business leader gave a talk on the subject of doing business with China. In response to a forum question from a member of the audience on the value of learning Chinese, the speaker summarised that  was “a waste of time - like watching a dog standing on its hind legs as if it was begging for attention”. Refreshingly, last week I met a thriving business which employs a significant number of native British Chinese speakers as response to Chinese customer demand because of the affinity they had with the subject.

More of British commerce and industry needs to meet such demand. In 21st century Britain, here are 29 Confucius Institutes, 148 Confucius Classrooms, numerous private language colleges, universities and other educational institutions which teach Chinese and Chinese culture. In addition to this there are 78,000 Chinese students to engage with. Many of them multi-talented, networked back to Chinese business and capable of promoting bilateral relations. However, without Britain building its side of the bridge from the ground up, the partnership will not develop to its true potential. 

As for the British Dream? Imagine a British engineer of Pakistani descent who speaks both Urdu and Chinese playing an integral part in the the Belt and Road Initiative. A British Dream worth aspiring to? I think so. The resources to strengthen bilateral and multi-lateral relations are right under the Britain’s nose. It needs to use them.

(Sam Jacobs is a business analyst based in London)