Conservative Friends of the Chinese
The Conservative Friends of the Chinese[1] is linked to the Conservative Party in the UK and is a membership organisation which engages with the British Chinese community.
Vision
The vision is for the Conservative Friends of the Chinese to become a sustainable organisation that acts as the bedrock to political, cultural and trade and investment relations between the United Kingdom and the British Chinese communities.
Mission statement
Their mission is to develop meaningful interaction and understanding between the Conservative Party and the various British Chinese communities.
The Conservative Friends of the Chinese is a member-led organisation that champions the values and culture of the British Chinese communities and emphasises the parallels with the beliefs of the Conservative Party.
It strongly advocates for closer relations between China and Britain and is an impressive source of information on China, the British Chinese communities and the global Chinese Diaspora for its key stakeholders.
Patrons
Board
Chair:
- Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Parliamentary Chairman)
- Lord Wei of Shoreditch (Nat Wei)
The Political Director of the group is Jackson Ng who is the Conservative Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Liverpool Riverside in the May 2015 British General Elections.
Another active member of the group is also Alan Mak, the Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Havant in the May 2015 General Elections. Alan is widely tipped to be the first ethnic Chinese to sit in the British House of Commons.
Sub-Groups & Other Organisations
The Conservative Friends of the Chinese works closely with other affiliated groups of the Conservative Party and they are listed below.
Conservative Parliamentary China Group The Conservative Parliamentary China Group was formed with the support of the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and the Conservative Party leadership with a view to promoting debate and discussion on China. To this end, we have held a series of events to discuss how best the government ought to respond to the challenge of China’s rise. Recent speakers include the heads of some of Britain’s most successful companies. These include HSBC, Standard Chartered, Diageo, Prudential and Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP (which has the largest share of China’s advertising market) as well as the UK Trade Minister, the Chinese Ambassador and the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten. The rise of China and the shift in power from the West to the East is the biggest story of our time – and our aim is to seek to understand how best we can respond to the challenge of China – both politically and economically.
Conservative Friends of the Chinese (London) - Chinese Conservative Group, Cities of London & Westminster Conservative Association (CLWCA) The Chinese community has long been firmly established in Westminster and is centred in Chinatown, now mainly in St James's ward. Conservatives in the community have served on the Association's committees in many capacities.
Following the demise of the Party's One Nation Forum, to which many Chinese members belonged, it was decided to form a Chinese Conservative Group within the Association to provide a focus for Chinese support. The Group is chaired by Tony Ip, its vice-chairman is Alan Ma and the committee meets regularly to co-ordinate future activities.
The Shanghai Blue Club, Conservatives Abroad Shanghai Blue was set up in 2013 after the successful example of the Beijing Blue. We have a range of friendly people from entrepreneurs to corporate CEO’s with wide ranging China experience and are very keen to welcome politicians when they visit and are more than happy to organise drinks or suppers and share what we have learned about China to date.
Conservative Friends of the Chinese (Surrey) There is a large population of Chinese living in the Surrey region and therefore the Surrey regional branch of the Conservative Friends of the Chinese was set up in June 2014. It works very closely and supports the national group in its activities.
The Beijing Blue Club, Conservatives Abroad Beijing Blue Club is a grouping of British expats living in Beijing who regularly get together to discuss about UK China matters.