British Ambassador to China visits The University of Manchester

Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Dame Barbara Woodward DCMG OBE, visited the University on Monday 25 February.

The President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, Deputy President, Professor Luke Georghiou, and Professor Sir Andre Geim, Nobel laureate, lead the visit commencing at the £60 million Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) for a tour of the state-of-the-art facility, including special demonstrations of some of the various application of graphene.

This was followed by a visit to the Manchester China Institute, hosted by Professor Peter Gries, Director and Professor of Chinese Politics.

The Ambassador delivered a special guest lecture in University Place to 150 current students and staff, on the topic of UK-China in 2019: How can diplomacy rise to the challenges of the 21st century?

As the first female British Ambassador to China, Dame Woodward’s keynote speech was one of equilibrium and balance. It was a talk of history and the future, of strengths through times of strain, and learning from past mistakes, as well as successes.

The lecture was followed by an enthusiastic number of questions from the audience, mostly from our current students at undergraduate and postgraduate level on International Relations and Politics related programmes.