Perhaps a testimony to their work can be seen in the largely successful development of Hong Kong since 1997, when it became a special administrative region of the People's Republic. The Basic Law, agreed by both sides before 1997, which serves as a de-facto constitution for Hong Kong, has survived most of the challenges posed in the last 13 years. That is a tribute to the huge work put into finalizing agreement on this document by China's and Britain's diplomats over almost 10 years.

Since 1997, the focus of the interests between the UK and China has shifted more to economic cooperation. With China's continuing reform and opening up, greater numbers of Chinese companies have come to invest in the UK. Large companies like COSCO, Huawei and the Bank of China, have offices in the UK. Central China Television and Alibaba have their European headquarters in London. London has become, since 1997, a major center for finance, despite the global economic downturn since 2007.

In Fu's period as ambassador, a further 15 companies from China came to list on the London Stock Exchange, joining the 40 that had already floated. More than 150 new companies came to invest in the UK, making the country the most popular destination for Chinese investment, overtaking Germany in 2008. Chinese tourists increased from just more than 100,000 in 2007 to 175,000 in 2009. Perhaps the most remarkable statistic is that there are 85,000 Chinese students studying at universities in the UK—almost the same number as those in the United States.

There were two major events that occurred while Fu was ambassador, which illustrate the strengths and challenges of the UK-China relationship. One was the Beijing Olympics in 2008 attracting global attention to China, and the other was the international effort building up to the G20 conference in London in April 2009 to deal with the global financial crisis.

For both events, Fu was critical as the face of China in the UK, appearing in TV and press interviews and explaining China's position on political and economic issues. For the Olympics, she was able to engage with the criticisms and anxieties about China's emerging economic power and profile, setting them alongside the remaining huge challenges China faced within its own borders to continue to reform and develop. For the financial crisis, she was able to explain both in public and directly to key British politicians what the response of the Chinese Government was going to be and how it wanted to work with international partners.

Providing a foundation

The need to have a figure in a country who is able to communicate directly to its people about the intentions of China was one of the most striking features of Fu's time in the UK. She herself made clear she was concerned about the messages that were being conveyed about China and the misunderstanding that existed amongst some groups.

Talk of a "China threat" and of China somehow having a master plan to extend its influence globally in places such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East in ways that would conflict with developed countries increased when statistics showed each year from 2006 major rises of Chinese investment in these areas. A point she made on many occasions in public in the UK was China had committed itself since early in the reform process to working with the outside world, and that it had benefited from a stable, benign international environment.

Her presentation of the concept of "peaceful" rise was at least able to set out, in the mainstream media in the UK, why China was committed to this path and why it was actively engaged in international diplomacy to work with other partners, not against them.

It may well have been a result of her patient and polite diplomacy that led to the UK in late 2008 changing its position on Tibet, from being the only country to merely recognize Chinese suzerainty, or special influence, in the autonomous region, to recognizing fully the PRC's sovereignty there. This led the way to the first British ministerial visit to Tibet in October 2009.

She uniquely saw the visit by both Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to the UK, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to China, over six months from the beginning of 2009. In 2009 alone she hosted more than 400 delegations from China to Britain and saw more than 35 ministerial visits from Britain to China in return.

What a diplomat can only ever do is to provide a foundation. With these links between the UK and China, and with large areas of common interest, there is nothing to gain from conflict and contention between both sides. But there are certainly areas where in the coming months and years there will be hard talk.

The UK and China did not see eye to eye during the climate change conference at Copenhagen in December 2009. Through the European Union, there are ongoing trade issues around market access, protectionism and the value of the Chinese renminbi, or yuan. There will need to be tough talk between both sides on how to deal with issues over the global cyber environment, drawing up some common and accepted rules on how cyberspace should be policed and regulated so that everyone's interests are protected.

The whole point of diplomatic effort, however, is to make sure that there is plenty of understanding and communication beforehand, so that when problems happen—problems always will happen, even in the most harmonious of relations—then both sides are well placed to work through these, and make sure that things don't get out of hand.

Fu was exemplary in dealing even with tough issues where the governments of the UK and China disagreed politely, firmly and clearly. She put forward China's case in a way where, even if people disagreed, they could at least understand it, and try to find a way of drawing the two sides closer.

Her successor has a great foundation to move forward on, and with increasing numbers of schoolchildren in the UK studying Chinese, visiting China and having Chinese come to stay with them in the UK, however hard the dialogue becomes in the future, we are in a good place to deal with it and make sure we end up both coming out feeling we've achieved the best result.

The author is a senior fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in Britain

(The viewpoints in this article do not necessarily represent those of Beijing Review)