Sharing Opportunities | Stephen Perry: Canton Fair showcase China's commitment to openness

南方财经全媒体记者 李依农 上海报道

The 135th Canton Fair has concluded successfully, marking not only a vital window for China's foreign trade but also bearing rich history and stories. The significance of the Canton Fair extends beyond its immense scale and diverse exhibitors, embodying an emotional bond of mutual growth with international trade partners.

The story of the Canton Fair intertwines closely with Stephen Perry, the Honorary President and former Chairman of the UK's 48 Group Club, who has dedicated over fifty years to promoting better understanding and communication between China and the West. The club was established in 1954 after the first Western trade delegation to the People's Republic of China, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and collaboration.

In 1972, Mr. Perry accompanied his parents to the Canton Fair for the first time, witnessing a crucial moment in China's economic and trade exchange with the world. Perry recalls that at that time, China was grappling with poverty and underdevelopment, while the Canton Fair served as a window to showcase China's commitment to openness and bridged China with the world.

Over time, the Canton Fair has witnessed China's economic takeoff and the deepening of its open-door policy. In this era of abundant opportunities and challenges, the Canton Fair continues to play a crucial role in driving global trade development, igniting expectations for the better future.

SFC Markets and Finance: You have retired as chairman. How does that feel? What are your expectations and wishes for your son, Jack, to carry on the responsibilities and legacy of the 48 Group Club?

Stephen Perry: It's a very strange thing to retire, after 52 years of doing business with China and about 30 years of being the chairman of the 48 Group through very, very changing times. Of course, letting go is always difficult if you still operate in the same area as you were the day before. And when you watch younger people do it, you must remember that they may have better ideas. But they're different. Because they're different, you spent 20, 30 years looking out for what's different in order to make sure it doesn't disrupt. So it's quite a different approach.

I've had a little bit more time to read, a little bit more time to understand what I don't understand. And after reading the New (quality) productive forces, I could feel an epoch change in the world and China. And it's a bit easier to find the time to understand that.

I know that China's leaders are looking 100, 150 years out today. So they've got a vista of what they're trying to get to as well as what they're trying to manage to do. And if you're trying to understand China, you have to understand how that feels to China's leaders. So I've got a bit more time to understand that as well. We'll see what happens.

SFC Markets and Finance: Your son, Jack Perry, the current chairman-elect of the 48 Group Club, bears his grandfather's name. What is the significance of that?

Stephen Perry: When he was born, I said to his mother, the name Jack is a good name for him because Perry is a soft word. And he should have a word with strong consonants in it. And she said it's his grandfather's name. And I said, well, that may be nice for him. And he became a footballer. He didn't want to go into business at all, only because of an accident, he had to stop that. And I said to him, why don't you go live in China for a while, see what you think. And he did. Now, he's absorbed a great deal of what the icebreaker spirit means.

SFC Markets and Finance: Looking back on your journey with the 48 Group Club, what is your most memorable and proud achievement? Can you share some stories with us?

Stephen Perry: Well, I think my mind immediately goes to how I became chairman of the 48 Group. Governor Patten had taken up the job in Hong Kong and made the most dreadful speech in October 1992. Just a lot of people in Hong Kong were misled by him, and thinking that they could look forward to the future where the British system would be predominant. That was never going to happen.

After his speech, my father took me as vice president of the government organization, and the vice president of the 48 Group, together for meeting with the Chinese ambassador in London, and we talked about what a terrible mistake Patten have done and it would harm British interests for a long time to come unless we could do something about it.

They said it was for me to lead that process, because I held a position on both sides. So, my father suggested that I take over as chairman. But during that period, I came to see how prepared China was for the return of Hong Kong. It wasn't five years or 10 years. It wasn't in 1984 that they started. It was 10s of years before. China had thought this through and looked at all the alternative scenarios.

And quite early on, I could feel that everything to do with Hong Kong was being handled by Patten, and not by London. But there were some very capable people in London, they just thought he was basically wrong. And he could cause a lifetime of problems for the British. So there are a number of things to deal with. At the end of it, I decided that the thing to do was to try and get a senior British political leader to go to China and reopen the relationship between Beijing and London. And I've never talked about this on the air before.

I was invited by the Chinese side, not the British side to the return celebrations in Hong Kong. And as I'm watching, the thought that went through my mind I'm sitting watching history I'm sitting watching a peaceful handover of a city which has considerable value. And I thought to myself, it's not going to stay the same, it's going to have to change. The changing forces in the history of the world are much more understandable to me having been involved on the periphery of the return of Hong Kong.

So that was as the chairman of the 48 Group, My first job. What was amazing was when the British ceremony happened, it rained. When the Chinese ceremony happened, which had been moved in indoors because of the potential of rain, there was no rain.

SFC Markets and Finance: The Canton Fair has played a pivotal role in promoting trade between China and the world. Do you still remember the first time you attended the Canton Fair, and what has changed over the years?

Stephen Perry: Everything has changed. The place, the conference halls, the hotels, the food—when I first attended, we had only two restaurants to choose from. That trip was my first to China with my parents, and we visited various places and events together. The Canton Fair was a unique opportunity to experience it firsthand. Our company, London Export Corporation, was a founding icebreaker for this event. We had to manage with almost nonexistent communication methods, passing messages back and forth throughout the night without much sleep.

We went to the Canton Fair to conclude the first sales from America to China of substantial commodities. And I was part of that team. I was a junior member of that team, for sure. I was 22 years old, I think something like that, 24. And I joined the negotiations, I participated in them. I can't say that I made much difference. Our directors on the commodity side put the deals together. They concluded we did the first deals between America and China ever. I will always remember that feeling of elation.

I said to my father, what comes next? He said, well, we're going to America now. But after that, you'll find out what quite a bit of Chinese goods to sell in America, so that we can start the two-way trade. And you'll have to decide whether you think you could make a life of business between America and China, as well as the UK and China. And it was a memorable moment for me. I was way out of my depth. But it was a great opportunity as a young man to have.

But it took me another 20 to 30 years to begin to understand China. And, boy, what a wonderful experience has it been, I'm very lucky. What I see in China, which is very effective and very successful, if you look at the transformation. All of this was going through my mind, at the turn of that first Canton Fair in 1972, and what a different world it is now, in this year where my son goes for the first time.

SFC Markets and Finance: Indeed, the Canton Fair is the oldest, largest, and most representative trade fair in China.

Stephen Perry: When the Canton Fair started, there was enormous poverty in China, enormously desperate conditions in China. There were hardly any railways, hardly any roads, and hardly any cars. I think the Canton Fair was a wonderful first opening up of Chinese and foreign cultures and civilizations to each other, certainly was for me.

SFC Markets and Finance: Guangdong has been a key hub for international trade and investment. How important do you see Guangdong and the Greater Bay Area in terms of building the trade bridge between China and the world?

Stephen Perry: When the Foreign Trade Zone was created in Shenzhen, I've watched it very carefully, how it's developed. And Shenzhen has developed into one of the world's great cities. I've made several visits there. I'm staggered by how fast and substantially they've moved into innovation in a number of important areas and built a city of which China can be proud.

China's leaders, they're trying to modernize China for the benefit of the people of China. And they're doing it with one eye always on the constant core concept of socialism, which is evidenced in common prosperity, it's about making sure that all the people benefit. So, they've got to develop in a different way to Western development. And it's got to bring in and absorb the innovative capability and talent, and they got to give people the opportunity to make more money because of taking bigger risks. But they've also got to recognize that poverty has got to be eradicated. It's not easy to do all of that. I think that Guangdong has done a good job. And I think China has done very well as a country.

As people look ahead to the future of the Greater Bay Area, they should recognize that they are going to increase their involvement with ASEAN and with Southeast Asia, and that's an opportunity for many different people.

This whole development phase that we're going through now, with the new quality productive forces and all the multinational corporations——in the recent writing I've done on the new quality productive forces, I have suggested that China will be absolutely transformed, and that the West has no idea what it is that's going to happen. China is saying to them, come in and be with us, be part of us, and help us define the new era we're moving into. I hope any of them do, I think some will. But we've got to get past this period of American feeling that its primary duty is to contain China.

SFC Markets and Finance: You brought up the 'new quality productive forces,' which many foreigners are not quite familiar with. What's your understanding of that?

Stephen Perry: China is transforming totally as a result of innovation, and innovation means new technology. New technology means people who must be able to run it. If China wants to move into this new modern high-technology era where AI is going to play an incredibly major change in the world and China, the only way AI is going to be controlled is the people who are running it to be brighter than the machines that they're running.

And it's not just that. It's the roads, the transportation systems, it's the living conditions, it's so many things that have got to be transformed, to meet the needs of this new era. So there's an enormous amount of transformation of the new quality productive forces, the productive forces of the people, machines and systems, that makes it all happen. But it's not the technology of AI, it's not the technology of modern system, it's how you make sure that the people can do it.

We have to be able to see it coming, and we have to be able to deal with it in advance. And even at that time, 30 to 40 years ago, I was seeing the first glimpse of what the new productive forces are about.

China is over 50% of the world's supply of renewable energy. They think that the British will be high up on the list of people that China wants to take on borders as a shareholder in some of these new industries. I think that it's going to have a big impact on the world. And I think it's a done deal, the future power in the energy system will be China, it may be 30 or 40 years before that fully emergence.

One of the questions which we should be debating with China is, because the oil came out of certain countries' ground, was that good for those countries? Or should they have shared more earlier in order to stop themselves from being dependent on oil? Questions like that can be discussed with China. And I think they will find that China has thought through how it will spread those renewable energies throughout the world, but particularly to the South.

You look at America, they are desperate for a high-speed railway system, the skies are full. The people want to get around easily from this city to that city, they need a high-speed railway system. Who's got it? China.

It was all clear to me suddenly, once you see it, you can see that the China that you and I look at today is going to be changing enormously in the next 10 years. Where did this happen? New quality productive forces is what it is.

SFC Markets and Finance: The 48 Group emphasizes understanding China's growth and potential. What advice would you give to business leaders aiming to navigate the Chinese market effectively?

Stephen Perry: I feel that the vast majority of business people who deal with China have no idea where the people on the other side of the table are coming from. Are we going to change? Certainly, we should continue to do my job. How is Britain, America, or France going to react to this new quality productive forces? If we don't have a big change, we are going to get left behind. So the extent to which we can do it will depend upon whether or not the leaders of our country understand that we need to understand what China is seeing and doing. Because it's going to impact us in a big way.

（市场有风险，投资需谨慎。本节目嘉宾意见仅代表本人观点。）

策划：于晓娜    

监制：施诗

责任编辑：李依农

记者：李依农

制作：李群

新媒体统筹：丁青云 曾婷芳 赖禧 曾昭发

海外运营监制: 黄燕淑

海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪

海外运营编辑：庄欢 吴婉婕 龙李华 张伟韬

出品：南方财经全媒体集团