On September 9, 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Peter Mandelson, UK First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, at the Great Hall of the People.
Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, China and Britain have witnessed leaders' close communication and coordination, more business cooperation and joint efforts to help the international community to cope with the challenges, Wen said. "All these moves signified the vitality of the China-Britain all-round strategic partnership," Wen said. The EU should recognize China's market economy status as early as possible. "This will be conducive to China-EU relations, to free trade and to the recovery and growth of the world economy," Wen said. He expressed the hope that Britain will play an active role in this process.
Mandelson said China's package plan to cope with the global financial crisis not only helped maintain China's economic growth, but also played an important role in the world economy. He said Britain would like to strengthen macro economic policy coordination and substantive cooperation with China and continue to push forward UK-China, EU-China relations.