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Barbara Woodward holds her first press conference in Beijing since taking office, on March 18. (Photo/Beijing News)
(ECNS) - Barbara Woodward, the first female British Ambassador to China in 40 years of diplomatic relations, has held her first press conference in Beijing since taking office.
Woodward is one of the few UK diplomats with a rich experience with China, British media say. According to the Chinese-language newspaper Beijing Times, she made a ten-minute speech in Chinese at the news conference.
About 30 years ago, a young Woodward already showed great interest in China. She made her first trip to the country in 1986, and worked for two years as an English teacher at Wuhan University and then Nankai University.
She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1994 and worked at the British embassy in China from 2003 to 2009.
Her Chinese Name, Wu Baina, was given by one of her London teachers, who was familiar with Chinese culture. "Woodward" is similar in sound to the Chinese surname "Wu", and Barbara sounds close to "Baina," which literally means "adopting a hundred".
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has previously voiced his hope that Woodward will help bring China-UK ties to a new stage in the spirit of "hai (sea) na (adopt) bai (hundred) chuan (river)", meaning "all rivers run into the sea" or "the sea refuses no river". Woodward says she hopes to live up to her Chinese name.
She also says political and economic ties as well as exchanges between the two cultures are the three pillars of UK-China ties and her job is to consolidate development in the three areas.
One of her priorities is to promote economic and trade ties between the two countries, she adds. Trade volumes with China still fall far behind those with Germany, but she is convinced there is big potential in economic and trade cooperation with China, she told the paper.
The UK also wants to contribute its expertise in infrastructure, investment and international financial cooperation to the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and participate in setting rules and sharing experience with the other parties during the bank's infant stage.
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