For the past decade, Stephen Perry, Chairman of The 48 Group Club, a London-based nonprofit business network, and Managing Director of London Export Corporation, has been engaged in promoting trade between China and the United Kingdom. In a recent exclusive interview with Beijing Review reporters Peng Jiawei and Tao Xing, Perry shared his views on the past, present and future outlook of China’s reform and opening up. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow:
Beijing Review: Your father, Jack Perry, was a leading figure in the Icebreaking Mission in 1953, the first Western trade delegation to visit the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949 amid a U.S.-led trade embargo imposed on the country. From then on, your father and you have played vital roles in restarting trade between China and the UK. How did it all begin?
: A lot of work was done in the early
