About The 48 group club

The 48 Group Club Image with caption below

Surviving photograph taken at the signing of the "Business Arrangement" (6th July 1953). Left to right: Dr Chi Chao-ting, Roland Berger, Harold Spencer (spokesman of the "Icebreaker Mission"),(half hidden) Joan Robinson and S.G.Holmes (a Mission member)

In 1950, the United Kingdom became one of the first countries to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, in 1951 the UK joined in a US-led embargo on the sale to China of goods of “strategic importance”.

In 1952, Lord Boyd-Orr, the first Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, stated publicly that “the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain would be less dangerous if there were more wagons crossing over them carrying goods from one side to the other. Trade increases understanding.”

He went on to form the British Council for the Promotion of International Trade (BCPIT) and in 1953 took 16 representatives of British companies, including Jack Perry, to China to discuss trade. This “Icebreaker Mission” paved the way for the 1954 mission by the 48 companies who became the “48 Group”.

Over the next 43 years, this commercial group, funded by its members, grew to be the most respected name in China-Britain trade, a name well known throughout China. The Group provided support and consultancy services to British companies entering China’s markets.

In the late 1980s, encouraged by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Group began to explore a merger with the Sino-British Trade Council (SBTC). which had been operating as an Area Advisory Group to the Overseas Trade Board (OTB). In 1991, the two organizations merged to form the China-Britain Trade Group, now known as the China Britain Business Council (CBBC).

The 48 Group Club was formed at the merger, taking on the networking and social functions of the 48 Group, just as the new organization took on its trade functions. The 48 Group name, well known throughout China from the President down, is being sustained amongst the younger generation of Chinese businessmen, who are becoming significant decision makers within the orbit of China’s foreign trade.

The 48 Group Club is an important means of maintaining a network of those active in China trade, and keeping a well regarded relationship with Chinese friends.