Stephen Perry displays his China Reform Friendship Medal certificate in his study. [Photo by Zhang Ping/China News Service]

On January 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the "Icebreakers" 2022 Chinese New Year celebration hosted by British trade organization the 48 Group Club in London.

He pointed out that in the 1950s, British entrepreneurs, represented by Jack Perry, started the "Icebreaking Mission," which broke the ice in the West's trade with China.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the ambassadorial diplomatic relations between China and the UK, Xi said that in retrospect, China will never forget the older generation of friends who made historical contributions to the development of the China-UK relations.

Looking ahead, Xi added, China hopes that visionary people and business representatives in both countries will uphold the "icebreaking" spirit, continuously expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and make China-UK friendship more relevant in the new era, so as to bring more benefits to both nations and peoples.

Over the past half a century, China-UK relations have broken through all kinds of disturbances and barriers to achieve historical development. The experience and lessons drawn from the past 50 years have proven that it is totally in the interest of both countries for China and UK to conduct mutually beneficial cooperation. Actually, the "ice" had already been broken in the China-UK contacts even before the two countries formally established ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations in 1972. Jack Perry, the former chairman of the 48 Group Club, can be hailed as the "icebreaker" in China-UK relations as one of the advocates of people-to-people exchanges. China News Release specially interviewed Stephen Perry, the son of the "Icebreaker," about the relationship between the Perry family and China.