政府新闻
上海为中英全面战略伙伴关系提供了有力支持 2026-02-03
On January 31, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer concluded his visit to China in Shanghai. The trip yielded substantive outcomes and highlighted both the breadth and depth of cooperation between the two countries. In recent years, amid an increasingly turbulent international landscape, China-UK relations have faced a political "chill." Yet exchanges and cooperation at the regional and local levels have continued to act as a stabilizing force, with Shanghai playing a pivotal role as a bridgehead.
Historically, Shanghai was among the earliest Chinese cities to engage with Britain and has long served as a key gateway for bilateral exchanges. Following China's reform and opening up, Shanghai once again became a major destination for British investment. Leading British companies and financial institutions returned to the city in force, actively participating in China-UK cooperation in trade and finance. Since the 1990s, Shanghai has established friendly exchanges with the City of London and forged sister-city relationships with Liverpool and Greater London, giving rise to extensive and pragmatic cooperation across finance, trade, shipping, culture, education, and environmental protection.
Today, Shanghai has been endowed with renewed significance in China-Britain relations. The recent meeting between the two countries' leaders set the direction for deepening bilateral economic and trade ties and for building a comprehensive strategic partnership based on complementary strengths, mutual benefit, and win-win results. With its distinctive strengths and vast potential in finance, trade, technology, and services, Shanghai is well positioned to play an irreplaceable role in advancing China-UK relations in the years ahead.
On the one hand, Shanghai brings together the roles of international trade and shipping hub, having built a commercial chain that links an industrial hinterland, a trading hub, and logistics corridors. This provides a solid material foundation and a stable buffer of shared interests for China-UK relations. As the manufacturing center of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai boasts enormous trade volumes, the world's largest container throughput, and vast logistics demand. Britain, by contrast, possesses well-established international economic and trade rules – including those governing digital trade – along with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards and a highly developed professional services system. It also commands global influence in maritime insurance, maritime arbitration, and shipbroking. These complementary strengths not only offer fertile ground for British business, but also create valuable opportunities for Shanghai to enhance its standing as an international economic center and to advance high-level, institutional opening-up.
On the other hand, Shanghai integrates the functions of an international financial center and a hub for scientific and technological innovation, forging a value chain that connects innovation at the source, capital empowerment, and transformation of scientific and technological achievements. This provides strong endogenous momentum and broad growth prospects for China-UK economic and trade relations. Shanghai serves as a core hub linking Britain with China's and the wider world's capital markets.
Cooperation between Shanghai and London is both extensive and deep: Shanghai's vast financial markets and growth potential complement London's mature regulatory framework and global capital networks. Likewise, Shanghai's strong R&D and industrialization capabilities and large application market complement Britain's robust basic research capacity and advanced experience in science and technology governance, leading to increasingly close and frequent collaboration in technological innovation.
As a global cultural metropolis, Shanghai also acts as a key bridge for people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, injecting resilient public support and sustained momentum into China-UK relations. Shanghai's well-developed infrastructure and strong demand for high-quality education and cultural services complement Britain's world-class educational and cultural resources.
Cooperation in basic and higher education has deepened, exemplified by the Shanghai-England Maths Teacher Exchange, which has facilitated mutual teaching and training exchanges between primary and secondary school mathematics teachers from England and Shanghai, and has become a model for bilateral educational cooperation.
Long-term, multi-layered partnerships have also been established between Shanghai and British universities, covering joint programs, academic exchanges, student mobility, and international student initiatives. The Shanghai-London dialogue has significantly enhanced mutual understanding and emotional resonance between the two peoples, helping to cement a strong emotional foundation and to build a durable bridge of cooperation for bilateral relations.
From a historical nexus of contact to a high ground of cooperation in the new era, Shanghai has played a strategically significant role in China-UK relations, serving as a bridgehead capable of withstanding political "cold spells." Prime Minister Starmer's decision Britain to make Shanghai a key stop on his China visit sends a clear message: as China and Britain seek to reinvigorate and advance their relationship, bilateral cooperation requires a solid foundation that can translate the promising potential of cooperation into remarkable accomplishments.
Looking ahead, Shanghai will continue to provide strong support for the long-term, consistent comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Britain.
The author is Sun Lin, a senior fellow at the Center for Sino-Britain People-to-People Communication, Shanghai International Studies University.
Source: City News Service
