On the evening of February 17, 2008, visiting State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan paid a special visit to the Chinese embassy in Britain and held cordial talks with all the embassy staffs and their family members.

Kids who had been waiting at the embassy presented flowers to Tang immediately after he arrived and performed martial art exercise with the theme "Patriotic Love for Our Country" which they had prepared carefully. The interesting performance of the children received waves of applause. Tang delivered New Year gifts to the kids in a warm and festive atmosphere.

The State Councilor then held cordial talks with the embassy staffs who had been working overtime during the Spring Festival and extended to them praise and greetings. He said that his visit to Britain has three tasks: first, to implement the common consensus reached by the leaders of China and Britain during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to China; second, to attend the dinner of "China Now" held by Britain; third, to exchange opinions with the British side on the work of the bilateral relations interaction group and jointly develop the work plan of the next stage. The embassy and related departments have made careful preparations for this visit. Tang expressed confidence in the success of the visit.

Tang introduced in detail China's efforts of fighting against the snow havoc and expressed admiration to the embassy staffs for their donation to the snow-hit people immediately after the disaster happened.

He also talked about the current diplomatic tasks, recognized the work of the Chinese embassy in Britain and raised new requirements and expectation to the embassy staffs.