The United Kingdom formally withdrew from the European Union on Jan 31.But, both the UK and the EU have been positively pushing forward the process of Brexit to establish a new EU-UK partnership, releasing the signal that both sides have the intention of putting an end to the uncertainties brought by Brexit as soon as possible.

Both the UK and the EU have strong aspirations and capacity to forge their post-Brexit relationship. For the UK, the political position of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is based on successfully pushing the UK out of the EU, because the UK has spent too much time and resources on Brexit to deal with other important issues. Johnson won the December general election based on the simplistic slogan "get Brexit done", and his dominant victory in the election paved a direct and easy way to get his Brexit deal through Parliament.

For the EU, it has gradually realized that the EU should provide enough negotiation space for the UK to make a consensus in order to obtain necessary support from UK political circle and society. The attitude of the EU has changed to how to effectively solve the problem raised by Brexit. The new EU leaders led by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel hope to address several challenges facing the EU and give it a leading global role in geopolitics, climate change and regional hotpot issues, therefore getting Brexit done will make the EU obtain more policy space to deal with other priorities.

However, now the UK has left the EU, the two sides have to commence critical negotiations on trade, security and other areas, which will likely prove to be no less difficult than the Brexit deal. There are many barriers on trade negotiations between the EU and the UK.For instance, the EU demands that the UK should comply with its regulations on product standards, labor and the environment to ensure there is a level playing field for UK and European competitors in the EU market. Besides, the EU also intends to keep member states' fishing rights in the territorial waters of the UK. Such issues not only concern sovereignty and are therefore politically sensitive, they are also matters that concern the real economic interests of both sides.

However, as the British parliament has passed a law prohibiting the government prolonging the transition period beyond the end of 2020, the negotiation time is very limited to resolve all the many complicated issues.

As for the future of China-UK relations, we can expect that the two sides will attach more importance to each other. On the UK side, Johnson released his concept of a "Global Britain "in 2016, when he was the foreign secretary in the cabinet of Theresa May, portraying a grand blueprint of a global partnership network for the UK in the post-Brexit era.

Before the Brexit referendum in 2016, the UK was considering strengthening relations with Asian countries due to Asia's economic momentum and huge market potential, particularly with China. To fulfill the vision of "Global Britain", the UK should comprehensively promote its relations with China. In 2018, the UK sent 6 percent of its merchandise exports to China compared with 47 percent to the EU and 13 percent to the United States. China accounts for 16 percent of the global GDP, has a huge market and per capita GDP of $10,000, and at the same time, China is also increasingly paying attention to the UK's unique role in China's development and openness. London will retain its status as a global financial center even if the UK loses some financial services convenience after Brexit, and London will continue to have a very important role in renminbi internationalization.

The UK will also remain a popular destination for the foreign investment of Chinese enterprises. Besides, due to the UK's high-quality assets in the education and technology sectors, China can also strengthen its cooperation with the UK in those areas.

All in all, cooperation between China and the UK in trade and other areas has huge potential for further development. And some positive signals have been released that they intend to tap that potential.

On Jan 28, Prime Minister Johnson announced that the UK government made a decision to use Huawei's equipment in parts of the UK's 5G networks. The UK is the first major Western country to support the Chinese company. The decision is especially important as it flies in the face of the US efforts to curtail Huawei's development and damage its business. It means that the UK will deal with its relations with China in a very pragmatic way rather than simply based on the US-UK "special relationship". It is to be hoped that China and the UK will work together to develop their future bilateral relations in the post-Brexit era and promote them to a higher level.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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