UK-China partnership still needs to be greatly developed

IT must have been a bitter-sweet moment for Xi Jinping, the head of the world's biggest Communist Party, to be riding in a gilded carriage seated next to Queen Elizabeth II, the world's longest reigning monarch, second only to the king of Thailand, on their way to Buckingham Palace.

After all, in the 1950s, when Mr Xi was a mere child and Elizabeth was already queen, chairman Mao Zedong set for China the seemingly impossible goal of catching up with the UK in 15 years. Some 57 years later, riding in the ultra-modern Australian-built royal coach drawn by six white horses, Mr Xi had the satisfaction of knowing that his country had long surpassed the UK and that the British were now supplicants seeking Chinese investment.

History, obviously, has not been forgotten by China. The BBC reported that People's Daily declared in a front-page editorial: "The national humiliation that China suffered in modern times began with the rumble of cannon from British warships."