IntroductionTwenty five years ago I came to Hong Kong as a student.The year was 1985.Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher had recently signed the historic Joint Declaration.The remarkable story of the successful handover of Hong Kongand the great progress Hong Kong has continued to makeis an example to the world of what can be achieved when two countries cooperate in confidence and with mutual respect.Since then, China has changed almost beyond recognition.Chinas National Anthem famously calls on the people of China to stand upQi lai qi lai Today the Chinese people are not just standing up in their own countrythey are standing up in the world.No longer can people talk about the global economywithout including the country that has grown on average ten per cent a year for three decades.No longer can we talk about tradewithout the country that is now the worlds largest exporter and third largest importerAnd no longer can we debate energy security or climate changewithout the country that is one of the worlds biggest consumer of energy.China is on course to reclaim, later this century, its position as the worlds biggest economythe position it has held for 18 of the last 20 centuries.and an achievement of which the Chinese people are justly proud.Put simply: China has re-emerged as a great global power.Threat or OpportunityNow people can react to this in one of two ways.They can see Chinas rise as a threator they can see it as an opportunity.They can protect their markets from Chinaor open their markets to China.They can try and shut China outor wele China in, to a new place at the top table of global affairs.There has been a change of Government in Britain and a change of Prime Minister.But on this vital point there is absolute continuity between my government and the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.We want a strong relationship with China. Strong on trade. Strong on investment. Strong on dialogue.I made that clear as Leader of the Opposition when I visited Beijing and Chongqing three years ago.And I repeat it as Prime Minister here in Chinas capital today.In the argument about how to react to the rise of China.I say its an opportunity.I choose engagement not disengagement.Dialogue not stand-off.Mutual benefit, not zero-sum game.Partnership not protectionism.Britain is the country that argues most passionately for globalisation and free trade.Free trade is in our DNA.And we want trade with China. As much of it as we can get.Thats why I have with me on this visit one of the biggest and most high-powered delegations a British Prime Minister has ever led to China.Just think about some of the prizes that the rise of China could help to bring within our grasp.Strong, and sustainable growth for the global economy.Vital progress on the Doha trade round which could add $170 billion to the global economy.A real chance to get back on track towards a legally binding deal on emissionsUnprecedented progress in tackling poverty.China has lifted 500 million people out of poverty in just thirty years.Although there is still a long way to go thats more people lifted out of poverty than at any time in human history.You can see the results right across this enormous country.When I worked in Hong Kong briefly in 1985, Shenzhen was barely more than a small town, surrounded by paddy fields and waterways.Today it is a city larger than London. It makes most of the worlds iPods and one in ten of its mobile phones.And there are other benefits too in tackling the worlds most intractable problems.I wele the fact, for example, that more than 900 Chinese doctors now work in African countries and that in Uganda it is a Chinese pharmaceutical firm that is introducing a new anti-malarial drug.So I want to make the positive casefor the world to see Chinas rise as an opportunity not a threat.But China needs to help us to make that argumentto demonstrate that as your economy grows, so do our shared interests, and our shared responsibilities.We share an interest in Chinas integration into the world economy, which is essential for Chinas development.If we are to maintain Europes openness to China, we must be able to show that China is open to Europe.So we share an interest in an international system governed by rules and norms.We share an interest in effective cooperative governance, including for the world economy.We share an interest in fighting protectionismand in a co-ordinated rebalancing between surplus and deficit countries.These interests, those responsibilities are both economic and political.Let me take each in turn.Economic ResponsibilitiesFirst, economic responsibilities.Lets get straight to the point.The world economy has begun to grow again after the crisis.But that growth is very uneven.Led by China, Asia and other emerging markets are grow