1967-68: Studied Chinese in Hong Kong
1968-72: Third secretary in the office of the British charge d'affaires in Beijing
1981-84: First secretary at the British embassy in China, and later minister counselor
1984-86: Principal private secretary to the British foreign secretary
1986-89: Private secretary to Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe
1989-90: Wrote on the history of the Hong Kong handover negotiations at Chatham House
1990-93: Sino-British Joint Liaison Group
1993-95: Chief of assessments staff at the Cabinet Office
1995-97: Deputy undersecretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
1997-2002: British ambassador to China
2002-present: Adviser on Chinese affairs at Standard Chartered Bank
Former British ambassador hails Deng's 'clear vision'
In 1983, when British diplomat Anthony Galsworthy returned to London for a short trip in the middle of his Beijing posting, he was keen to tell his colleagues in the government about China's economic growth and market transformations.
That was five years after China began its reform and opening-up policy, aimed at shifting the country from a planned economy to a market one. The policy unleashed the Chinese people's entrepreneurial spirit, and Galsworthy observed the changes with fascination.
But his colleagues viewed things differently. "Nobody ... was particularly interested," he said.
Galsworthy, 73, tells such stories with a great sense of pride and a touch of humor. The pride comes from seeing China, a country that has shaped his life, change beyond all recognition.
He went to Hong Kong to study Chinese in 1967 when he was 22. A year later, he started working at the British charge d'affaires' office in Beijing, a post which ended in 1972. And from 1981 to 1984, he served as first secretary at the British embassy in China and then as minister counselor.
Between 1990 and 1993, he was a part of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group, set up to discuss details of the Hong Kong handover, and he later served as British ambassador to China from 1997 to 2002.
Galsworthy, now retired, arrived for an interview with China Daily in central London wearing a blue tie with the Chinese characters for "China" and "Britain" marked in gold.
"We designed this tie when I was ambassador," he said. "We made a big batch in the UK so that I could give them to Chinese government representatives as gifts. At the end of my ambassadorial posting, I decided that I should present one to myself."
Despite his fascination in 1983, Galsworthy could not have foreseen the full extent of China's economic potential. The possibilities only became clearer when he returned to Beijing as ambassador.
"In 1998, I was at a dinner in the German embassy in Beijing. At 8 o'clock in the evening, the waiter came around and tapped me on the shoulder and said there was a telephone call," he said.
The call was from the UK Treasury, which was panicking after reading a story in the Financial Times that said the Chinese government was about to devalue the yuan. The story turned out to be untrue, but the anecdote underlined the growing importance of the Chinese economy.
