Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

Sherard Cowper-Coles, HSBC's head of public affairs and a former British diplomat, has apologized for saying the UK government was weak by giving in to US pressure to cut back on its dealings with China, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

In terms of common sense, what the HSBC executive said was nothing but a normal and rational comment as a British businessman. "The UK should follow its own interests rather than simply accept the US' position," Cowper-Coles said at a private event in London in June, Bloomberg News reported.

The fact that Cowper-Coles has to apologize for such a normal comment highlights how hard the US is pressing its allies in terms of interfering with their normal economic and trade cooperation with China, and the difficulties and pressures the US government has brought to foreign companies such as HSBC.

HSBC is a London-based multinational bank, with most of its revenue coming from China. The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong contributed around 44 percent of HSBC's profit in 2022, according to Reuters. For a company largely benefiting from the Chinese market, the arbitrary requests of the US to cut back on its deals with China seriously affect its business growth and are apparently unaffordable.

Among a continuing wave of Western CEOs visiting China this year despite the US' and some Western countries' "de-risking" rhetoric, HSBC Chief Executive Noel Quinn visited Beijing in March. His visit to China fully reflected the importance of the Chinese market against the backdrop of a gloomy global economic outlook. China's insistence on opening-up and its willingness to share dividends with foreign companies bring them huge opportunities.

HSBC's director of public affairs has apologized for his comments, but he has actually voiced the thoughts of many business leaders in the UK. His call for reflection on safeguarding Britain's interests is something the UK's economy and companies desperately need. Affected by multiple factors such as Brexit, the epidemic and geopolitical conflicts, the British economy has been in a predicament in recent years.

A large part of the reason why this situation exists is that, in recent years, the UK's economic and trade policies, especially those toward China, were not completely based on the perspective of British economic interests, but reflected the political pressure of the US.

A year ago, UK media outlet the Sunday Times published an edited extract from a book by British investigative journalist Richard Kerbaj, which revealed how the US essentially forced Britain to block Chinese tech giant Huawei from the UK's 5G network development. The UK followed the US ideological lead to ban Huawei, but it ended up spending more money and delaying the country's 5G rollout.

Although the UK is expected to avoid a recession this year, the country still faces a challenging economic outlook. It is necessary for the UK government to maintain trade policy autonomy and prioritize the UK's own interests to boost its economy. The consequences of more decision-making that only caters to US requests will inevitably create more problems for the UK economy, further delaying its recovery.

Originally, after Brexit, the UK had hoped to reach free trade agreements to boost trade and develop domestic industries and the economy. But negotiations on a free trade agreement between the UK and the US have gone nowhere. The delay reflects the consistent approach of the US to put its own interests before those of its allies. The UK's hope to realize an economic recovery by promoting trade with the US has almost failed.

In stark contrast, the importance of trade with China is self-evident. More importantly, China has been expressed willingness to expand trade and economic cooperation with other economies including the UK. There still remains huge untapped potential for China-UK trade.

It's time for British anti-China politicians to heed the calls of British business leaders to get rid of US interference in formulating the economic and trade cooperation policies toward China. If the UK lets the US take the lead when dealing with economic and trade cooperation with China, the ones who will continue to pay the bill for such wrong policies are British companies such as HSBC, and the British economy will continue to be hurt as a result.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn