Shrug off the chill
According to the Bank of China website, the bank has signed a strategic partnership with British property company Canary Wharf Group and Xiongan Construction Investment Group. The parties will work together to build an "international-standard" financial technology center. Canary Wharf Group transformed Docklands into a world-leading international hub in London.
An opinion piece published on Xiakedao, a popular WeChat account supervised by the People's Daily, said that, despite the fact that May was the very first foreign leader that Trump met with after taking office and that the US views Britain as a "natural ally," Trump's advocacy of an "America first" strategy is causing the once-strong UK-US relationship to become fragile.
Meanwhile, as May wrote in the Financial Times, China "is creating new markets for a vast range of products, from milk to motorcycles to the latest innovative technology" for the UK.
Chinese people too have noticed May's attempt to please China, including wearing red clothes and scarf during her visit. On her Sina Weibo account "UK Prime Minister," May made nine posts in Chinese with photos or videos about her three-day visit.
One post, which received 22,000 comments, was of photos showing May, wearing a red scarf, and her husband touring the Palace Museum in Beijing. Netizens expressed their concern that she "was cold" and urged her to "put on more clothes to shrug off the chill."
Qu Bing, an associate professor at the Institute of European Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that May's trip met her expectations. Speaking in Shanghai, May confirmed this by saying that the past few days in China had been "fascinating and productive."
Its own pride
Some Western media outlets were upset that May had failed to keep her pledge to discuss the Hong Kong situation and human rights issues while in China.
"The UK government is pragmatic. They won't sacrifice the real benefits only to talk about human rights," said Zhao. "It's understandable that the British government is facing such pressure from its people to emphasize its values and is forced to state its position. But this is meaningless, and the government should be more down-to-earth."
"China has a different situation from Western countries. What we hold is a way of Chinese characteristics. Their values don't fit in our country," Zhao added.
While China has high expectations for the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, May did not sign a memorandum of understanding or a formal endorsement of the initiative. Qu noted to the Global Times this may have been because she is "suffering pressure from UK's allies, including the US, who don't want her to actively join the B&R."
Despite China's rising influence in the UK, Britain still considers the US its most important partner. "It will find a balance," he said.
Zhao said May's government is "weak" and that, in the Western political world where populists now reign, the B&R initiative is still a sensitive subject.
The UK is an old capitalist country and has its own pride, which holds it back from giving an immediate response to China's initiative as some other small countries have, he added.
"But in the future, both sides will cooperate in this," he said.
Qu said that, after Brexit there will be a long period of uncertainty in the UK's many bilateral relationships.
"There will be many changes in Britain's policy and overall environment after Brexit. We need to wait to see what kind of effects it will have to decide what kind of future cooperation we should have," he said.
Zhao is more optimistic about Brexit, which he said will bring more opportunities to the UK and to China. "Now the two countries' cooperation still has many restraints under the larger EU framework. But after Brexit, there will be more flexibility for both sides to negotiate and cooperate."
