Nathanael Wei Ming-yan says part of his role is to build bridges between the UK and China to help businesses work together. [Provided to China Daily]

Ethnic Chinese member of Uk house of lords explains the role of china in a new world order

Lord Nathanael Wei Ming-yan believes a China dream is unfolding as the nation of his forefathers develops a larger presence on the global stage. But rather than focusing only on economic prowess, the only Chinese peer in Britain's House of Lords says the China dream has a strong social element that could bring great benefits to the world.

But what is the Chinese dream? He says it involves serving the community by better using technology, reducing the carbon footprint by using solar, wind power and alternative energy and returning "back to the idea of the village and the family as the central driver of the society".

"If the 20th century was pretty much dominated by the idea of the American dream, which is about freedom and opportunities, now there is a Chinese dream, which is about how the Chinese people can help in all the things they do to further promote powerful and positive images and offer this to the world," Wei says.

The 34-year-old father of two believes the Chinese dream is emerging at a time when a new world order is emerging.

"The Chinese dream must be more than just about the American dream with a Chinese face. Less about private ownership, fast food, and Western symbols of luxury, and more about how to build more Chinese symbols to encourage people to understand China more," he says.

Wei was visiting China for the first time after he was elected the chair of All Party Parliamentary Group for East Asian Business and was in an ebullient mood in the meeting room in the Beijing Wanshou Hotel.

His positive state reflected the recent improvements in trade and cultural ties between the UK and China.

After talking with Alibaba founder Jack Ma and other CEOs at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, he says he now realizes how important it is to work with social enterprises and organizations in solving the economic problems rather than just using the political approach.

"The world is full of Bill Gateses and that's great but there's room for other people too, such as Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba Group) and (Hong Kong tycoon) Li Ka-shing. However, not everyone in the West knows them," he says.

The social entrepreneur says he plans to invite successful Chinese entrepreneurs to the UK to talk about how Chinese business people operate and for the British people who are going to do business in China.

"The part of my role in the group is to look to build bridges between the UK and China so that businesses can work together between the two countries," says the former adviser on the British government's Big Society program.

In doing that, Wei has recruited some big hitters in his East Asian Business Group, including Lord Peter Mandelson, the former British secretary of state for business, who is co-founding president, and Lord Charles Powell, who was policy adviser to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s.

In his speech at Tsinghua University, he said he had been speaking to the British Chinese community in an effort to better understand the issues and encouraged colleges and universities to establish academic exchanges and cooperation with their counterparts overseas.

He says these actions will not only help the Chinese community in the UK but will also help China.

Wei says sending Chinese students to study in Britain is a way to foster stronger relationships and more Chinese need to support programs overseas.

Already about 160,000 mainland students go to the UK for study and most of them need to know more about the UK to build up the link.

Wei, who speaks with a very clear British accent, has deep roots in China.

"I was born in the UK and grew up here, but my roots are in China," says Wei, whose Chinese ancestry can be traced back to a village in Zhuhai, on the southern coast of Guangdong province. His ancestral home is two villages away from that of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen.

Born in Watford and raised in Milton Keynes, Wei was brought up in a Chinese community where academic excellence is the norm. He was the only student in his year to go to Oxford before embarking on three years' working at McKinsey, where he met Brett Wigdortz, who founded Teach First in 2002.

"I could have become a partner at McKinsey and made a lot of money," Wei says. "But I wanted to do something for society and I think life is not all about money and status.

"What is great about my family, still today is that we were raised very much to value living a simple life and explore lots of different paths not just the standard path that most people did in my generation."

In 2006, after three years at Teach First, Wei worked for the children's charity Absolute Return for Kids where he helped to set up Future Leaders, a project aimed at attracting and training potential teachers to be future leaders of urban schools.

His pioneering role as a member in these charitable organizations brought him to the attention of British Prime Minster David Cameron and he was appointed as a government adviser on community issues in May.

At the same event, he was also appointed as a Tory life peer, making him Lord Wei of Shoreditch and given a desk at the office for civil society in the Cabinet Office as the "big society tzar", that was to create a social climate by putting more power and opportunity, which was taken away from the politicians, into British people's hands.

However, after less than a year, Lord Wei announced his decision to step down from the unpaid post of management consultant on the Big Society project in a move that attracted widespread criticism by local media.

"The reason why I stepped down from the roles before is purely because in my government role there was a conflict between some of the money and help that would be given to those organizations and authorities that I had," he says. "Now I'm re-engaging in charity work in the UK and with my role I have to balance a lot more of my time."

Wei now works as a volunteer adviser at the Community Foundation Network, a charity that drives "community philanthropy".

Cameron said in a statement: "Nat (Nathan) has worked incredibly hard over two years to help develop policies that support the Big Society. He has played an important role in delivering key initiatives like Community Organizers, National Citizen Service, and the Big Society Bank. I wish him every success in his new role with the Community Foundation Network."

The graduate of modern languages says he still has a lot to learn about China, and now he is learning Mandarin at the Confucius Institute of Business at the London School of Economics, which should open even more doors in the world's fastest-growing economy.