On February 17, 2008, visiting Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan met in London with former British Deputy Prime Minister & former Task Force Chairman John Prescott.

Tang praised Prescott's unremitting efforts over the years in promoting friendly cooperation between the two countries. Sino-British relations have enjoyed a good momentum of development in recent years, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a successful visit to China last month, said Tang.   He noted that during Brown's visit, the two countries agreed to establish a Sino-British financial and economic dialogue mechanism at vice prime minister's level, to boost the bilateral trade volume to 60 billion U.S. dollars by 2010, and to strengthen exchange and cooperation in the fields of energy, education, science and technology, humanities, the Olympics, climate change, sustainable development, and international development. The large exchange program "China Now" will soon be launched in the UK. China attaches great importance to relations with the United Kingdom (UK), Tang said, while reaffirming that China is willing to work together with the UK to further deepen bilateral relations. Tang hoped that Mr. Prescott will continue to show care for and support the development of bilateral relations.

For his part, Prescott said that China has played an active and constructive role in the international community and that the UK needs to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with China in bilateral and international affairs. He said he was pleased to see the dynamic development of UK-China ties, adding that he will as always make contributions to promoting bilateral cooperation.