Sir Vince Cable: Examining China's collaboration potential

In a career spanning six decades, Sir Vince Cable has straddled the worlds of politics and economics, foreign diplomacy and business, as well as producing countless books, pamphlets, and articles exploring these many fields of expertise. His expansive career led him repeatedly to China, not only for his huge academic interest as an experienced economist, but also to explore the potential for collaboration with the West in matters of climate change, educational exchange, and cultural development. In this exclusive interview for People’s Daily Online, he expresses his deep interest in China not only from the perspective of an expert economist, but as someone who recognises the great value in the human connection between Chinese and Western people.

Cable is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom as the former Leader of the Liberal Democrat party, a position he held until his withdrawal from the political sphere in 2019. In addition to this, he acted as the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills between 2010 and 2015, and stood as a Member of Parliament for 20 years. Prior to his time as a politician, he worked as an economic adviser to governments across the planet as well as to private companies, including Royal Dutch Shell.

Sir Vince Cable (Photo/Dalong Ge)

Wisdom on paper: Insights on China and economics

People's Daily Online: What has drawn you away from a political career and towards authorship?

Sir Vince Cable: I wrote a book in the middle of the financial crisis, that was 2008, I was then a political figure, and I wrote about why the banks had imploded with devastating consequences. And as a result, it became a bestseller. And that encouraged me to write more.

So when I left politics temporarily, in 2015, I started writing about economic policy. I wrote a novel, I wrote some economic history about key figures who had changed the way economics is done, including a biographical piece on Deng Xiaoping. And then later I've been writing about China and about a variety of other things. I'm quite eclectic in the subjects I write about.

People's Daily Online: How did you come to develop an interest in China?

Sir Vince Cable: I first started going to China in the 1990s. That juxtaposition of ancient and modern was what stayed with me. I worked for Shell, the international energy company, I was their chief economist. And I was asked to do a lot of the risk assessment in that capacity. Subsequently, when I became a government minister, one of my responsibilities was trade and investment relationships with China, so I had several visits and meeting ministers who came into Britain, including the prime minister and the president.

And then when I left Parliament, I wanted to focus on China, because I thought there is a big issue with China, we have a lot of misunderstandings. So I wrote a pamphlet and then a book called "The Chinese Conundrum", which hopefully – at least for the people who read it – made some sort of sense about how we might build a constructive relationship.

I don’t claim to be terribly knowledgeable about China, I certainly don't speak the language. But I've always enjoyed going there and benefited enormously from it.

People's Daily Online: You recently published a book with Cam Rivers Publishing titled “Discord and Harmony: Unravelling the Chinese Conundrum”, which you co-authored as a conversation with anthropologist and historian Professor Alan Macfarlane. Can you discuss your shared views on China in this book?

Sir Vince Cable: There was actually a lot of agreement. We both acknowledge the phenomenal progress China has made in overcoming poverty and advancing development. We also agree on the importance of fostering a constructive relationship between the West and China, not hostility; we certainly don’t want a new Cold War. Overall, we feel quite positive about China, so there’s substantial common ground.

Having been in business, I understand that while there are many opportunities in China, there are also significant challenges. Not everything is positive. In my conversations with Alan—who is very wise and knowledgeable about China—I found myself in the role of a friendly critic, if you will.

Sir Vince Cable’s book "Discord and Harmony: Unravelling the Chinese Conundrum" (Photo/Cam Rivers Publishing)

People's Daily Online: Why do you think China's development model has been so successful compared to the economic systems of the West over the last half of a century?

Sir Vince Cable: Certainly, since Deng Xiaoping embarked on his reforms, China has outperformed almost every country in the world. The reason that it did well for so long was that it was a very carefully constructed mixture of state-led development, government, being tough but clear, combined with private enterprise and markets, and China got the balance right. Many other countries haven't.

I think also another factor was this ability to take a long-term view, whereas in many other countries, for particular political reasons, governments are concerned with survival and short advantage, whereas China was thinking decades ahead, not just years ahead.

Understanding China: A key for Western engagement

People's Daily Online: In current global affairs, why is China so important for Western politicians to understand?

Sir Vince Cable: It's the world’s biggest manufacturing country, it's the world’s biggest trading country; every aspect of economic life is determined in relation to China.

There is a big difference in the cultural history between China and the West, but that's all the more reason for trying to deepen the understanding. I mean, sadly, there are very, very few people in the UK who speak Mandarin or any other Chinese language. There is very little understanding of China. There are very few people who visit there. More and more interaction can only be positive, understanding some of the history and the cultural issues is pretty fundamental. So I always encourage groups here that are promoting engagement of a cultural or economic kind.

People’s Daily Online: How do you think the West can currently promote communication or cooperation with China?

Sir Vince Cable: First of all, I’ll start with something fairly prosaic, which is just through human contact. The enormous importance of human contact through overseas students, who have large numbers in the UK, they're very welcome, we should have more.

Then we should have more cooperation when it comes to scientific collaboration. Business is also potentially highly beneficial to both sides. I spent my five years in the cabinet doing my best to promote it, and that's something we've got to build on.

People's Daily Online: What current projects are you working on and what future projects do you have coming up that you’re looking forward to?

Sir Vince Cable: I've just finished this book comparing development in China and India. I don't know what my next book will be, but in the meantime, I'm trying to develop low carbon businesses. I'm chairman of a company that is about to float on the stock exchange developing hydrogen infrastructure for lorries, which will be, is a small step on the way to creating a zero-carbon economy. And I'm also chairing a group of lorry companies and others who are introducing batteries. So two new technologies to deal with this environmental challenge we have. I find it useful, talking to Chinese businesspeople in the same sector, because China is also developing very rapidly in hydrogen and in batteries. This is an area where exchange of ideas, Chinese knowledge would be, and company investment would be very useful.

I wanted to do something worthwhile and something that is useful to future generations. One way of making a contribution is getting businesses going that can take this whole process further.

I'd love to spend more time and to take my wife to travel to some of the interior cities and areas I've never been to. There's an infinite amount of potential interest. And I've only very scraped the surface to a very limited extent. So I'd love to go for more time!