British Prime Minister David Cameron signed various economic and cultural agreements during his visit to China. It is now time for people in both countries to consider where mutually beneficial relations can be established, develop and flourish. People to people exchanges and the elimination of barriers are important preconditions for enduring success. The hurdles are technical, linguistic, cultural, historical and institutional.

The British bourgeoisie once thought a hundred years into the future. Sadly the last few decades have seen chronic underinvestment in infrastructure. This reflects a general lack of imagination and vision in formulating political and economic policy. For example, under Britain's high-speed rail plans the first trains will run a distance of 119 miles between London and Birmingham in 2026. Meanwhile, in China, negotiations are underway to build a high-speed rail link between Beijing and London, a distance of 8,150 miles; the journey will take just two days. It may even be operational before 2026. China's national and international high-speed rail projects are visionary projects binding the Eurasian landmass together.

READ • The British prime minister's lessons in China

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The world requires bold action to meet human needs in development, economics, politics and ecological protection. But global planning frequently clashes with the interests of capitalist nations. The profit motive driving private companies often conflicts with the long-term collective needs of the world's people. It remains true that socialist policies can win hearts and minds everywhere – by improving living standards, protecting the environment, and advancing human knowledge and culture. Public sector healthcare is one sphere where a socialist ethos still captures the popular imagination in Britain and China.

China's state-owned enterprises provided free urban healthcare to most urban residents before 1978. Since then, economic expansion, the restructuring of state enterprises, and mass migration to the cities – placed China's healthcare system under severe strain. A model of healthcare financing based on social insurance has become dominant but this only pays part of the cost of treatment. A socialist healthcare system must be: accessible to all, modern, efficient, holistic, and free on demand.

The Labour Party created the British National Health Service (NHS) after the Second World War. It was one of the boldest experiments in socialist healthcare in the world. Amazingly, it was established at a time of immense economic hardship. The NHS was made the centrepiece of Danny Boyle's opening ceremony at the London Olympics in 2012 in order to highlight Conservative attacks on the system. Nevertheless, the NHS remains the pride and joy of the British social system. Despite austerity and backdoor privatisation, it continues to provide free health care on demand – at the highest standard – regardless of financial status. But to meet current investment needs for hospitals and other infrastructure projects Conservative and Labour governments raise funds from Private Finance Initiatives (PFI). However, the high cost of PFI schemes undermines long-term NHS budgets.

Perhaps Chinese state investment could help maintain the NHS? Such investment in British hospitals and infrastructure could be made on the basis of mutually beneficial knowledge transfer and exchange. China's Ministry of Health can learn from engagement in the processes of planning, designing, modelling and developing British hospitals. Then China can replicate the best NHS systems and skills. This knowledge will particularly benefit the hundreds of millions of migrants moving to China's cities and towns over the next two decades. Furthermore, it could bring immense benefits to the planning and construction of China's long-term health care provision.

Unfortunately, Britain's Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, seems to have swallowed the common myth that China's growth and success is primarily due to cheap labour. He said, "The only way we can compete with China – and the only way Britain can win – is by winning a race to the top ... where we compete on the basis of high-skill, high-tech, high-wage economy." Rather than seeing China as an economic competitor that Britain must defeat, Miliband should be developing a comprehensive plan for state-to-state cooperation. The Labour Party should not snipe at Cameron's visit, but should instead formulate grand projects for Sino-British collaboration and worldwide economic development in conjunction with the Chinese government, its state owned enterprises, institutions and banks.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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