We would be poorer without China as a friend

Chinese New Year has become a much-loved fixture in London's cultural calendar: tens of thousands of us flocked to Trafalgar Square to welcome in the Year of the Tiger and enjoy the dazzling martial artists and acrobats.

Sadly, the approach of Western governments to China is less surefooted. It sways from genuine respect to an inability to understand a country and a world view far removed from our own.

For politicians in the latter mode there's a broad portfolio of grievances, from carbon emissions to diplomatic pressure on Iran. Western governments and newspapers paint China as an obstreperous and fickle partner — a one-man axis of awkward. The new Chinese ambassador in London, Liu Xiaoming, who arrives this week, has his work cut out.

Now there are plenty of differences our government should have with Beijing. But underlying much of the criticism is fear of China's economic influence. With a GDP of $4.6 trillion, it will become the world's second largest economy this year, and there is plenty still left in this tiger's tank. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel claims China's GDP could hit $123 trillion by 2040. That's almost triple the economic output of the entire world in 2000.

China's emergence as an economic superpower may worry some but we need each other. It is an odd kind of rogue state that has become both the second-biggest bankroller of US government debt, holding more than $700 billion in US treasury bonds, and a $400 billion leader in providing the economic stimulus to underpin all the fine words of last April's G20 meeting on the recession.

The naivety of the British approach to China was brought into sharp focus for me when I was involved in efforts last December to secure a reprieve for Akmal Shaikh, a London man executed in China for drug-trafficking. Gordon Brown's late intervention, writing a letter asking for clemency, clumsily segued into an attempt to blame China for the failure of the Copenhagen climate-change summit.

The case highlighted Chinese people's disdain for attempts at foreign interference: internet chatter was overwhelmingly supportive of China's tough line. "China is not Qing any more; we decide what to do on our land," read one comment, a swipe at the corrupt dynasty that presided over China's 19th century decline.

Human rights are often a sticking point but cultural differences are important. A recent Economist survey of politicians' professions revealed that in contrast with the lawyers who dominate the US and Britain, China's political leadership is dominated by engineers. Their emphasis is less on individual rights and more about taking the unwieldy structure of 1.3 billion citizens and turning it into something that works. Greater openness and democracy will flow from this order, not precede it.

Traditional Chinese beliefs hold that tiger years are auspicious and yield a generation of new leaders. Let us hope our new leaders after the election forge a new, more grown-up relationship with China. It is a friend we would be much poorer without.

George Lee is Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Holborn and St Pancras.