18 January 2008
Gordon Brown today received a personal invitation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The invitation to the games, which take place in August, came as Mr Brown and Premier Wen held a Q&A session with students from the People’s University on the outskirts of Beijing on the first day of his official visit to China.
Read the transcript
Student:
Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. In the beginning of the New Year we are welcoming His Excellency Premier Wen Jiabao and the Rt Hon Prime Minister Brown to Renmin (phon) University. I am the President of Renmin University. On behalf of the 30,000 students in the faculty of my university I would like to warmly welcome the two Heads of Government.
The fact that these two Heads of Government from China and Britain have come together to our university and to have this face to face exchange and dialogue with representatives of the general public is really something unprecedented in the diplomatic history of China.
For us here it is our rare honour and privilege to play host to this event. Now it is my honour to invite Premier Wen Jiabao to speak to us.
Premier Wen:
Dear friends, good afternoon. This is a unique and interesting event. First of all I would like to once again extend my warm welcome to the Prime Minister and Mrs Brown. We do welcome your visit to the prestigious institution of higher learning to meet with the public and have a dialogue.
The theme of our exchange today is China-UK partnership in a globalised world, development cooperation and win-win progress. In fact this topic has been quite fully dealt with in my discussions with Prime Minister Brown this morning. In the new century both China and Britain are faced with opportunities for further development and are confronted with common challenges. We should work together to meet these opportunities and challenges. The friendly relations and cooperation between our two countries are deeply rooted in the hearts of our peoples. Deep down in the hearts of our people they cherish this friendship. So for the two of us to be able to listen to our people directly is very helpful for us to develop our respective countries and provide even greater happiness and peace to our people.
I do not want to take up too much of your time. I would like to quote a few lines from a famous Irish playwright, Mr Bernard Shaw. He said, and I quote: "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple, but if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas then each of us will have two ideas." So I feel that the exchange of ideas and thoughts can really bring not just friendship and the better ideas that we each will have.
So with this I would like to invite the Prime Minister to address us.
Prime Minister:
… famous Chinese proverb that says a new year means good fortune, and it is our good fortune to have had such a successful summit this morning. And I want to congratulate Premier Wen on the success of the Chinese economic miracle, on making it possible for the numbers of people in education at this university, the People’s University, and I am very pleased to be here, and at so many other universities and colleges to rise from a million to five million over the last few years. And I want to congratulate Premier Wen on being host to the Olympic Games this year in Beijing and I know that the preparations have been wonderful and successful and I know China will win many medals, and I hope there will be some medals left so that Britain may win a few.
The level of cooperation between our countries and the friendship between us is growing and strengthening every year. And the proposition I want to put to this audience of students, and staff and members of the community, is that there is nothing that we cannot do if we cooperate together to build a better future. I believe that we are the generation of history that can move millions of people from poverty into prosperity. I believe that we are the generation that can tackle and address the problems of climate change and environmental degradation. I believe we could be the first generation in history to say of ourselves that every child in the world has the chance of schooling. I believe that our medical expertise and technology and science is such that we can eradicate some of the diseases, from polio and tuberculosis and malaria, that have bedevilled the world for centuries. And I believe that we can use the power of the internet together to build a truly global society where the connections and contacts and communications between people brings about peaceful relationships all across the world. And I believe that the cooperation between our two countries, which we have been talking about this morning, can play a huge part in that process, cooperation on the environment, on science, on trade and technology, cooperation in sports, in art, in culture, as we shall see with the Olympic Games. And with that degree of cooperation between two countries that admire and value each other I believe we can fundamentally reform and renew the international institutions for peace, prosperity and for sustainable prosperity in the years to come.
There is also a Chinese proverb that says that snow means that there will be a good harvest, and you had snow yesterday in Beijing. I believe that we will see a good harvest, not just in terms of the agriculture and the productivity of our countries, but also in terms of the strong and developing relationships that will bind our countries together in the future.
So to this audience of students, staff and members of the community, let me congratulate China on its progress and let me say that the cooperation that we can develop in the years to come can build a truly global society that can make our generation proud of its achievements.
Thank you very much.
Student:
Thank you very much Premier Wen and Prime Minister Brown. Now the Town Hall debate can start. This dialogue is about three subjects. Please ask your questions according to the subject. As you raise your questions the two leaders will answer them. The first subject is China-UK cooperation to address challenges of globalisation.
Question:
Thank you very much Premier Wen and Prime Minister Brown. The topic of our discussion today is the China-UK partnership in a globalised world. Just now both of you emphasised that the two countries need to work more closely together and Prime Minister Brown especially mentioned the Olympics and that China will win a lot of medals, and Britain will win a few too. I know that both of you have to serve the national interests of your respective countries, but at the same time you also represent countries having permanent seats on the Security Council, so you should not just take responsibility for your nations, but also for the whole world. So just now you mentioned about cooperation, I would like to know your thoughts about how China and Britain should cooperate to address issues of global governance such as development, non-traditional security threat, environmental protection and notably the issue of climate change.
Premier Wen:
Indeed as this gentleman has mentioned, we are now confronted with a host of diverse problems and challenges. In the final analysis they are about development, particularly for developing nations there are many issues, such as poverty, disease and even hunger. The children cannot go to school. As the largest developing country in the world, China has had 30 years of reform and opening up and this has introduced transformative changes in my country. But we are still in the process of development. Even in this process we are fully aware of the interests and needs of people in other parts of the world.
As the world is confronted with so many challenges I would like to particularly mention the issue of climate change. This issue is indeed affecting every nation and every person and no-one can escape from its impact. I am not like some politicians who might tend to debate at which time or which particular nations have emitted what percentage of CO2s in the world, I would like to look to the future and really look at the realities in today’s world. I do see the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, it is consistent with the reality of the world today. But I also want to tell you that on this issue of climate change China has a strong sense of responsibility. We not only set up a national leading group to address climate change and formulated a national programme on climate change, but we have also set targets for lowering emissions and raising energy efficiency.
At this stage we cannot meet certain mandatory targets, but we can put voluntary limits on emissions in our country, that is from 2005 - 2010 the energy intensity per unit of GDP will be cut by 20%, in other words each year we will have to achieve a 4% reduction in energy intensity per unit of GDP. And for us this is a mandatory target and this is the requirement we have put on Chinese enterprises to restructure their operations.
I can tell Prime Minister Brown that in the past five years we have altogether eliminated small plants of 22,380 megawatt of power generation in small coal mines generating units, and we have scrapped 50 million tons of capacity for producing steel in small steel plants. So this shows that China has a responsible government.
I also want to say that in a country of 1.3 billion we still have up to hundreds of millions of people living in poverty and we successfully cut down this poverty stricken population by 200 million in the past 30 years. So according to our minimum standards of poverty we still have 30 million people living in poverty, but according to the global average standard we still have 100 million people still living in poverty. Through our own efforts our poverty reduction achievement is also in itself a contribution to the world, concerning education, culture and a number of some other aspects. Maybe I will have more opportunities to address these topics in the next few minutes.
But in all these areas I see a great potential for China-UK cooperation. For example in raising energy efficiency and energy saving we can cooperate in developing new forms of energy, reducing emissions etc. In terms of poverty alleviation we can share experience. Apart from cutting down the poor population in our respective nations we should also together support under-developed countries in their poor population endeavours. In this area we do need to further tap this tremendous potential that exists, and we both have this desire to do so.
Even to the conclusion of our talks we are still talking about these issues.
Prime Minister:
… Premier Wen was raising with me this morning these very issues about the environment and about poverty round the world, and when we have climate change deserts now, when we have climate change evacuees, when we have climate change refugees, there is an urgency for cooperation to act where possible to deal with environmental degradation. There is a saying in Britain that you cannot take coals to Newcastle. Well we cannot take coal to China because you have massive amounts of coal, but we can bring clean coal technology to China and work together to reduce the carbon emissions from using different sources of fuel, and I believe that the cooperation that we are going to see in the next few years on clean coal technology, on carbon capture and storage, on new environmental technologies, will help both our countries reduce the carbon emissions and meet the targets that we have set for ourselves.
Winston Churchill once said you can’t build the future properly if you simply build the present in the image of the past. And I think there is a lesson there, that we have got to think boldly about how we can shape the international institutions for the future so that they can properly deal with the environmental problems, poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy. And there are 77 million children round the world who are not going to school today. China has succeeded in getting millions of children into school and now into college and higher education, but in other parts of the world there are 77 million not going to school. We must work together to ensure that every child has the right to education. One in every six mothers in Sierra Leone are dying in the birth of their children, a maternal mortality that is completely unacceptable, and in other parts of Africa and in some other parts of the world the rate of infant death and mothers dying in childbirth is so unacceptable that we must act together.
And that is why I am so pleased that the Chinese government and the British government are issuing a millennium call to action that we should meet the Millennium Development Goals, we should speed up the work that we are doing to achieve that, and these are the goals that would reduce poverty, cut out illiteracy, reduce the number of maternal deaths, reduce the amount of infant mortality and improve the environment round the world. And I hope over the course of this year that we can all work together to make sure that by 2015 we have met the goals we set ourselves and we can genuinely say that this generation is making a difference in cutting poverty, illiteracy and disease.
Student:
Thank you very much Premier Wen and Prime Minister Brown. Next I would like to ask a British friend to ask a question.
Question:
Thank you. I am Carol Renny from the UK Research Council. I would like to ask the two Prime Ministers, so far it seems to me that in the UK and in Europe we have managed to avoid some of the rhetoric about China’s growth being a threat, rhetoric that seems quite common in some parts of the dialogue in the United States. And the question I would like to ask the Prime Ministers is how can we avoid that happening? I think part of it in the UK might be that people haven’t yet realised quite how prominent China is going to be in the next century, and how can we make sure that we don’t fall prey to that … about China being a threat rather than a partner?
Premier Wen:
Thank you very much for your question. You mentioned the theory of the China threat. All the theory that we saw in the past, for example the collapse of China, actually there are indeed various notions about China’s development. I believe that these are misunderstandings based on lack of information or knowledge about China. China pursues a road of peaceful development and that is required by the realities in China. We have 1.3 billion people. More than 30 million are living under extreme poverty line. Every year in urban areas about 24 million people need to seek job opportunities in the labour market. In rural areas migrant workers who choose to find a job in cities, the total number is about 200 million and every year 8 million more are added into the labour market in other areas.
In China there is a big gap between urban areas and rural areas and the eastern part and the western part. We have skyscrapers in Beijing and Shanghai, such big cities. In the western part of China many people are still living in very basic houses, covered only by thatched roofs. So we need more time to concentrate ourselves and pursue development. We need to make sure that our economy will continue to grow so that we can provide better materials and cultural conditions for the Chinese people.
We hope that today’s world will be a world with tranquillity, peace and security. China’s development does not undermine any others. We are not interested in the affairs of others, nor will China’s development constitute a threat to any other.
This is how China is now. In 50 years time China will still be a developing country. Even 100 years. When China becomes a developed country China will still pursue this philosophy. This is an upward journey for us in China. China’s leaders, you can take a look at what China’s leaders are saying and doing every day, with that you can arrive at the conclusion that we don’t need to, we don’t want to threat others, we are already busy enough with our own affairs.
We need to redouble our efforts to resolve the challenges that we are facing, even though it will take a long time for us to do it. We don’t have the capacity, we don’t have the intention to challenge others. This is required by the fundamental interest of the Chinese people and also the fundamental interest of all populations in the world. What I said just now is from the bottom of my heart.
Prime Minister:
If we look at the relationship between China and the United Kingdom we can now see the mutual benefit to each of our countries in the trade between ourselves. And Adam Smith was the philosopher who came from my own constituency in Scotland and talked about the benefits of trade, but the benefits of trade in this century are clear, that while we benefit from Chinese manufacturing goods coming into the British economy and into Europe, China is starting to benefit from our financial services, our insurance services, some of the high quality brand names that are selling in China, our environmental technology, our science. And so there is a mutual benefit in the trading and cooperation between the two countries. And what is the purpose of it? It makes more people in both of our countries prosperous in the long term. I think Premier Wen is being frank and honest about the challenges that China faces to get people out of poverty. In all our countries, to deliver prosperity we must make globalisation work for all people and not just for some. It has got to become a cause for social justice on a global scale and not simply the benefits going to a few people.
If the benefits were only to go to a few people we would see protectionism rise, we would see people resist the challenge of opening up markets, we would see people resist greater economic cooperation. I was in Washington a few months ago and I was at the International Monetary Fund meeting and there were a lot of campaigners about globalisation at the meeting and there was one banner that summed up the problem of all this with a demonstrator holding it high, and it said "Worldwide campaign against globalisation". And some people feel that globalisation can be of no benefit, but I think everybody when they look round the world and see the benefits that come from trade and cooperation can see there are benefits to the Chinese people, benefits to the British people and benefits to the rest of the world. And if we can have an open trading system, and if we can cooperate on doing the things that we can do best together, and if we can continue to learn from each other, then I believe that poverty will be eliminated in China, Britain will be a more prosperous country and the whole world will benefit from it. So that is my idea of a globalisation that doesn’t lead to protectionism, but works to increase the prosperity of everybody in the world.
Student:
Thank you very much Premier Wen and Prime Minister Brown. Now let’s move to the second subject about people’s well-being and social issues. Now the floor is open.
Question:
Prime Minister Brown, Premier Wen, good afternoon. I am the Chairwoman of the Party Committee in Dau Badien (phon) village in Chaolong District (phon). In recent years we understand the Chinese government has done a lot to improve people’s well-being and you have made a difference. But people still have worries about housing, education, medical care, so on and so forth. Before I came here my neighbours asked me to ask you Premier Wen a question, what the Chinese government will do in the future to increase people’s well-being?
Premier Wen:
Well you raised your question very politely and objectively, but still it is a sharp question. Your question reflected the will or the aspiration of all the Chinese people and raised high requirements for the Chinese government. You said you understand now the Chinese government is under big pressure to improve people’s livelihood and you hoped that the government will do more to expand people’s welfare.
My answer is that no matter how big the pressure that we are under, the government will need to make consistent efforts to improve people’s livelihood. The government should always do it. I often think about how we can do it. In recent years, with growing economic prosperity, we have indeed done some things to improve people’s livelihood. We pay great attention to institutional building and long term arrangements. For example we rescinded the agricultural tax that had existed in China for 2,600 years. In rural areas we now have popularised the 9 year free compulsory education. The tuition fees are cancelled, the miscellaneous fees are cancelled, and the cost of books and teaching materials is also covered by the government. The government will provide financial subsidies to poor students.
We have set up a basic cost of living system in cities, we have also done that in the countryside. In rural areas we have already expanded the scope of the rural medical cooperative system. 80% of the rural population is now covered by this programme. The total number is about 360 million.
We also set up an assistant system for college students and university students. Last year the total amount was 1.8 billion RMB yuan. This year that assistance will reach 30 billion RMB yuan. In universities about 20% of universities will be benefited from this, and vocational schools 90% will be covered by this programme. Every semester every student can get 1,000 RMB yuan.
It is not a one-off effort. We have put in place a system that means this is a long term arrangement and as China’s economy continues to grow the actual amount, or the benefit received by people, will increase accordingly.
You asked what the government will do this year to increase people’s well-being. I can tell you that from 1 July this year in cities we will cancel tuition fees and miscellaneous fees for primary and secondary school students. That means the 9 year free compulsory education will cover all schools in cities. Secondly, the rural medical cooperatives, the scope or the coverage will be 100% and the total amount spent or provided to individuals will be increased to 100 yuan from the current level of 50 yuan and government subsidy will increase to 80 RMB yuan from the current level of 40 RMB yuan.
In these two years in 72 cities in China we introduced the medical care insurance system for older people, for children and for people with disabilities. Our plan is that with two years time we will be able to expand the scope of medical insurance in cities to 50% of all urban residents, and also the actual budget will increase.
The basic pension system has been set up in major enterprises in China. The basic principle is that a personal account shall be established and it will be connected with the contribution from employers. We will spend a lot of money to make sure that personal accounts have enough financial resources to meet their financial need.
In terms of housing we will address the problems from three aspects. First, the government will allocate financial resources to build more low rent houses. This year the central government will allocate 7.6 billion RMB yuan for low rent house construction. Local governments will also increase their financial input. Secondly, we will build more smaller apartments, or more cost effective or cheaper apartments for middle and low income groups. The job for the government is to have a good overall plan and to coordinate efforts and provide enough more housing for the general public. We will also improve the housing conditions in rural areas. We will further improve the supervision and regulation in the real estate sector.
So I am confident that with all these efforts, over time we can achieve the five objectives set out during the 17th Party Congress to provide a better life for our people, to increase their living standards. It is not something that can be achieved overnight. We must do it in the process of our modernisation drive.
As we develop, people’s needs will grow, people will have higher expectations. The Chinese government will forever take people’s livelihood as the overriding job and we look forward to further views from the general public.
Student:
Thank you very much Premier Wen. You have brought with you many good news. Now I will have one question from our students.
Question:
Thank you very much. I am from Renmin University, the Department of International Studies. My name is Zung Ye. I have a question for Prime Minister Brown. Just now Premier Wen elaborated on what the Chinese government is doing to improve people’s well-being. I understand that Prime Minister Brown also is highly committed to a better life for people in Britain. You have put forward the idea of building a good society, as China now is promoting harmonious society. How do you comment on the idea of building an harmonious society in China and what similarities do you see between these two concepts?
Prime Minister:
The harmonious society is a term that has emerged in China which I think has relevance for the whole of the world. And when I think of a harmonious society and a good society I think of a country or a community in which everyone has the chance to realise their potential to the full, in other words that people can bridge the gap between what they are and what they have it in themselves to become. And when I was listening to Premier Wen giving his answer to the lady’s question about could you do more on housing, on health, on education, it is exactly the same question that is asked of us in Britain and I think asked in every country - can you do more so that people can realise their potential through having better employment prospects, better chances for education and then better social conditions, including healthcare?
And I think the lesson that I have learned, and I think China is also following, is first of all you must have jobs and employment, so you must have a good economy to have a good society. If you don’t have an economy that can deliver jobs for the future and give people the prospects of employment and therefore an income, then very little of the rest will fall into place. So just as China, who is creating large numbers of jobs, so we too are trying to create large numbers of jobs for the future. Some people used to say that high technology would lessen the number of jobs so as an economy became more scientifically developed and more technologically sophisticated you would lose jobs, I think we are proving that as you move to a more sophisticated and technological economy then more service jobs become needing to be done, whether it is as carers or in servicing the population for other things that they need.
And therefore I think the second thing that is really important in building that good society is that people have the chance to realise the potential of education. And I know Premier Wen feels very strongly about every child having the chance to get the best education possible, and in our country what I would like to see is every child and every young person having the chance to realise their potential.
Now for 50 years, 100 years, and even in the last 10 years, large number of people with potential did not get the chance to go to college, or university or to learn a qualification. We are changing that. Large numbers of adults have left school without any qualifications whatsoever and never got a second chance, and we are changing that so every adult has got the chance to get some qualifications, even if they had missed out in school. And then we are realising that if you don’t start very young and give people the chance to develop their learning abilities in the years before the age of 5, which is the first year at which people formally got to school in Britain, then sometimes they have fallen so far behind that they cannot catch up. So we are now trying to do far more to develop education and learning and opportunities, including helping with the … of children from the earliest days, from their infant days to the age of 5 when they formally go to school.
So if we are dedicated, as I think we all are, to a society where everyone has the chance to realise their potential to the full, then obviously better healthcare and better services are going to be important, but you must start with a good economy, with investing in education and with giving people chances, particularly recognising that where people fall behind it is very difficult for them to catch up unless you take action early. And these are the lessons we are learning. And I think the harmonious society and the good society are the same, it is where there are opportunities and people are not denied the chance to realise their potential to the full.
Premier Wen:
Thank you Prime Minister Brown. Whether it is the idea of good society or harmonious society the objectives are rather similar, we need to learn from each other in such endeavours. So mutual learning, mutual enrichment, it is very important that China and Britain should seize these opportunities to go for win-win outcomes.
This year a great event is going to take place in Beijing, that is the Beijing Olympic Games. Among the audience we can see we have our famous table tennis player, Miss Dungya …. Do you have questions?
Question:
Your Excellency Prime Minister Brown, Premier Wen, it is a big honour for me to join you here today in this dialogue. I have participated in two Olympic Games. I also pursue PhD study in Cambridge University in the UK. We know that in August we will have the Olympic Games in Beijing. I want to ask Prime Minister Brown, are you going to come to Beijing for the Olympic Games in August? We know that in 2012 London is going to host the next Olympic Games, so currently there are a lot of things going on in cultural exchanges, sports exchanges. We know that the China Now Festival is going to open in February in London. In Shanghai in 2010 we will host the World Expo. So my question is that given such a variety of programmes and activities, how will they promote China-UK ties? Will they help increase mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries?
Prime Minister:
… if I am invited. And the reason I want to come is to learn from what I know will be the great success of China so that we can follow you successfully also in London in 2012. And let me congratulate you on your sporting career, and people like yourself who have been successful sportswomen and then play a part in encouraging younger people to take an interest in sport for the future. I do applaud what you do. And we have brought with us to China someone who is also a sports champion. She has won two Olympic medals in Athens in 2004 and she is with us today - Kelly Holmes - and I hope you will welcome her to this gathering today as well.
We wish to extend sporting and cultural cooperation between our two countries and I believe that for young people in particular the contact that will happen will build cultural bridges that will stand us in good stead for the years to come. There will be a programme of mentoring and buddying between young Chinese athletes and young British athletes and I think that will be to the benefit of both our countries.
And you mentioned China Now, the cultural festival, and cooperation in culture as well. We have had the Terracotta Army Exhibition in London, thanks to the good decision of your government to allow that to happen in London, and already nearly half a million people have visited that exhibition in a few weeks, which shows the interest in understanding each other’s cultures and histories. And I believe we can build on that in future years.
So the cooperation between our two countries is not just economic and trade, and it is not just science and technology, it goes right across the cultures, the arts, sport, histories, museums, art galleries, and I believe in the generation to come that all of us will benefit from the deepening of these links so let us extend them as much as we can in the next few years.
Premier Wen:
Actually I do want to play a table tennis match with you. You mentioned that China will host the Olympic Games this year and in 2012 London will host the next one, and in 2010 China will host the World Expo. These events provide very good opportunities to promote cultural exchanges. Here on behalf of the Chinese government I would like to extend again the invitation to Prime Minister Brown and Mrs Brown. I would like to invite both of you to China for the Olympic Games.
I also want to thank Prime Minister Brown for attending the opening ceremony marking the exhibition of the Terracotta Army in the British Museum. On 15 January he invited representatives of the Chinese community in London to No 10 Downing Street. These are all about cultural exchanges and people to people exchanges. We all know that China is an old country, and a new one, old because China has thousands of years of history, China is also new because with modernisation, drive, modern China has taken on a new look with notable achievements.
After the industrial revolution the UK has seen a great number of scientists, innovators and cultural experts. Prime Minister Brown, you come from Scotland. I visited Edinburgh when I was in the UK on a visit. I have a habit that is to have a jogging in the early morning, for example before 6.00. When I sat by the window when I was in Edinburgh I wondered how many philosophers were born here. At that time I had three books with me. I hadn’t realised that all the writers were related to Edinburgh. One book is Human Dignity and Humbleness by David Hume, another one is written by a British Nobel Laureate, Mr Stephenson, A Night in the Wood, or something like that, another book is written by Adam Smith, the … enquiries into national wealth. They all lived and worked in Edinburgh. And I believe it is because of the charm of Edinburgh that they chose to come to Edinburgh and they became so accomplished. The German musician, Mendelssohn, a composer, he wrote many of his works in Edinburgh. So in my diary I wrote on that day that we need to help people in every nation to understand the history and culture of others, while respecting the people of other countries. And that is my understanding about the importance of cultural changes.
Well in London we are going to have the China Now Festival soon, it might be an unprecedented art or cultural festival in London that London has ever seen. I hope that I can get support and cooperation from Prime Minister Brown and the British general public. Thank you.
Prime Minister:
Edinburgh University has been very embarrassed for the last 200 years because David Hume was one of the greatest philosophers of all times, but when he applied for a Professorship at Edinburgh University they turned him down. That is something that would never happen at the People’s University here.
Premier Wen:
But I do know that Edinburgh University has produced many famous figures. The day that I departed I myself wandered into the campus of the Edinburgh University and took a good look. Now in fact we have cooperative ties between Renmin University and the University of Edinburgh. Do we have any students from Edinburgh University?
Student:
Maybe we do not have enough time. Sorry, we do have limited time here and I hope we will have a similar opportunity in the future. Now I would like to invite the two leaders to give a brief summary. Prime Minister Brown, you go first.
Prime Minister:
The discussion today has just emphasised to me how strong the cooperation between our two countries can be in the future. Now of course there will be always issues that are very difficult for us, but there are also very big issues where we can cooperate. We have talked today, earlier, about how we could cooperate to bring peace to Darfur and Sudan, we have talked also about how we can bring reconciliation and democracy to Burma, and we have talked about how we can move forward climate change by working together. And I think you heard from Premier Wen his dedication to tackling poverty and injustice and illiteracy and ill-health and that is what we would like to do, working together round the world. And the big challenge is to renew our international institutions by our countries working with others so that we can have a world where the rules of the game are such that we are dedicated to these objectives of economic progress, social justice and environmental care together. And I hope coming out of this dialogue today is a greater consensus and agreement about what needs to be done, and then a determination that we can work in partnership to do it. I look forward to the stronger relationships between our two countries in the years to come.
Thank you very much.
Premier Wen:
Let me conclude with a quotation from Mr Russell. He once commented that beauty does not lie with the past, but rather with the future. China-Britain’s friendship and cooperation promise a brighter future and it is full of promise. I have no doubt in my mind that this Town Hall meeting is only the beginning, which will be followed by many such occasions to have exchanges with you in the future.
Student:
Ladies and Gentlemen, for us Chinese our most important traditional festival is coming, the Spring Festival. Normally we greet each other with Spring Festival greetings during this season. Just now the two Heads of Government had a dialogue with representatives from the general public. We have every reason to offer our best wishes as the Spring Festival is drawing very near. As a poet from the Tang Dynasty wrote, this year’s flower will be even more flourishing than last year.
I am sure this is the case for China-UK friendship. Let me now declare the Town Hall meeting now concludes. And next I invite all of you to move to the stadium to watch, together with our two leaders, a friendship match between ping-pong players of the two countries.
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