Britain could consider trading with Mexico and other countries to reduce its reliance on China, said chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat on Monday, as the UK’s new ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, touched down in Beijing. “While it is certainly true that China’s economy is dominant in many areas, it is no longer the cheap workshop of the world,” said Mr Tugendhat. “In that sense much of the products that are made and produced in China are also produced elsewhere,” he said, listing as examples Mexico, Egypt and Bangladesh. “We should be cooperating with China [but that] doesn’t mean we should be dependent on China,” he told reporters via video link. Ms Wilson, who has begun a two-week quarantine upon arriving in Beijing, is taking up her post as ambassador at a complicated time for bilateral relations. “Thrilled to be here,“ she wrote on Twitter, posting a picture of those greeting her upon arrival in full hazmat suits.
