British Consul General in Shanghai Chris Wood Photo: Courtesy of the British Consulate General in Shanghai

There is no global challenge such as climate change, that can be solved without China's participation, British Consul General in Shanghai Chris Wood told the Global Times on Wednesday in an exclusive interview, adding that continued bilateral discussion and collaboration will be seen during the post-pandemic period.

"We recognize that we very much want to work with China on these big global issues, and that will continue in future," Wood said, noting that the two countries have very strong relations and have enjoyed those relations for many years, and that gives both sides a good basis on which to cooperate.

So far, almost 2.5 million items of personal protective equipment have been donated by Chinese organizations to the UK. Meanwhile, the UK has purchased over 300 million pounds ($350 million) worth of medical equipment and over 30 million items from China. The UK sent 50 flights in the last six weeks to take medical equipment back to the UK with cargo flights operated by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and other cargo airlines, according to Wood.

Some Western politicians have targeted China for its response to COVID-19 such as the virus outbreak pattern and the reason why it could not be controlled earlier in China. Wood said the focus now has to be on dealing with the actual problems such as the people who are sick and also the economic implications, but now is not the time to be engaged in that debate.

"The top priority for governments all around the world has to be to deal with the immediate challenges, the health challenges, the impact on people, the impact on our health services," said Wood.

There will come a time when researchers and academics will want to look at exactly how this virus developed, or how did it cross over into humans from or whatever the source was, Wood said, noting that everybody wants to try to find ways to avoid these challenges again in the future. 

Since he has been in Shanghai during the COVID-19 epidemic, he personally feels that the medical facilities in the city are very strong and well-organized. It is "a great achievement by Shanghai" that the number of deaths from COVID-19 was relatively small. There have been seven local fatalities so far, according to the Shanghai health authorities.

As for some British businesses operating in China, he said that 97 percent of them noted they had some form of impact, especially in the tourism and travel sectors, as the markets were closed due to the epidemic, based on the surveys conducted by the British chamber of commerce. But "we will probably see more online commerce looking ahead," he said.