More than 60 members of the Young Fabians recently welcomed speakers from Chatham House, the chinadialgoue journal and the Shadow Foreign Office team for a discussion in Parliament on the evolving nature of China’s foreign policy.

Rod Wye, former head of research for Asia at the FCO and fellow at Chatham House, gave guests a wide overview on the historical character of China’s relations with the West and pointed to how China’s main expectation for the future was a greater sense of recognition from Western countries as a global leader.

Isabel Hilton, a journalist and CEO of China Dialogue, provided insight into how China’s new domestic priority of ensuring environmental protection as part of a modernising economy will feed through into a much greater level of engagement on global issues such as deforestation and climate change.

Kerry McCarthy, Shadow FCO Minister with responsibility for China, provided a critique of the coalition government's overly trade-focused outreach towards China and argued that the way to ensure British influence was to engage with China on all levels, while not shirking from our responsibilities towards upholding our national interests.