State of the two nations

(China Daily Europe) Updated: 2015-10-16 08:15

He Songdong, postgraduate in banking and finance, University of Sussex

Astable relationship between China and the UK ensures the increasing development of trade.

It is obvious that the Sino-UK relationship will get better and better. On one hand, the UK hopes to increase trade and investment from China due to high-speed economic development; on the other hand, even though China is developing rapidly economically, it still lacks high-end financial and technical personnel, which means it can learn a lot from the UK. I believe President Xi's visit points to a practical and positive strategic relationship.

Mao Zhouchen, first-year PhD researcher, University of Kent

Collaboration between China and the UK is constantly widening and deepening. I think a healthy Sino-UK relationship is not only significant to each country's national interest, but will also benefit their regions and even the world.

Of course, China and the UK differ in history, culture, social systems and values. However, I believe these differences offer vast opportunities for both countries to prosper from today's strong ties by encouraging greater mutual understanding, economic cooperation and collaboration in areas such as security, sustainable development and environmental protection.

President Xi's visit will push the China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level, and I expect commercial and economic developments to be the top priority. Both sides seek to deepen China-UK commercial ties, in which there is great potential for continued growth. For Chinese businesses this visit is an opportunity to create new partnerships.

Sapana Fisher, student of Chinese and development, School of Oriental Studies, University of London

To be honest, I didn't know that much about China before starting university. I'm studying the language, and I mainly studied languages at A levels so I've had to do a bit of catching up in history and politics. Now I tend to hear about China through the news or from my fellow students. I think Sino-UK relationship is important, and perhaps it is more important to the UK than it is to China, but I think we can offer something, especially culturally. Also, I believe the China-UK relationship will continue to grow at the current pace, as more and more Chinese people come to the UK for tourism and education, and more and more people in the UK study Chinese. Hopefully this will improve mutual understanding and we can learn from each other. Since I'm learning Chinese, I hope the relationship continues to be a friendly and prosperous one - and that perhaps I can play a part in that.