UK-China awards spotlight snooker, Liverpool FC, Octopus, Bear Grylls

With China-UK relations in focus, the Hurun UK–China Awards 2026 spotlighted snooker's meteoric rise in popularity, the reach of Liverpool Football Club, Octopus Energy's renewables push, broadcaster Bear Grylls's fan base, and even the impact of the iconic British Brompton Bicycle.

Held two weeks after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official visit to China, the first by a British political leader since 2018, the Chinese New Year gala dinner event recognized outstanding contributions to UK–China relations.

The awards ceremony, held at the InterContinental London Park Lane on Feb 10, drew 180 attendees including entrepreneurs and leading figures from the UK–China business community. The awards are aimed at both Chinese operators in the UK and their British counterparts in China.

Addressing the audience, the event's lead organizer Ada Shan, Hurun's chief representative for UK and Europe and founder of consulting company Shan Arts & Lux, said the awards pay special attention to those "who have advanced the bilateral relationship".

Liverpool Football Club was recognized for the promotion of the English Premier League in China and for developing 45 million followers across the country.

Brompton Bicycle was honored for the promotion of UK cycling culture in China, Tencent was awarded for services to the UK innovation industry, Octopus Energy for the promotion of renewable energy trading in China, and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, or WPBSA, for the promotion of snooker within China.

Snooker has experienced a massive, rapid boom in China, and is now considered a national sport, partly driven by stars like Zhao Xintong, who became China's first world champion in 2025, and Ding Junhui.

Jason Ferguson, chairman of the WPBSA, was part of the delegation that accompanied the UK prime minister on his recent visit to China.

"When I started out in China you would struggle to find a snooker table," Ferguson told China Daily. "It's very nice to win this recognition. Now there are now nearly 220 million fans dedicated to the sport in China, and we've just become the number one sport watched on the state national television channel, CCTV 5. There are 60 million people playing snooker, and there are a staggering 300,000 billiard clubs. I mean the sport is just booming there."

He described the honor of being with the prime minister's delegation as "a sign of respect to where snooker is today, and for me quite an emotional trip, because we've come a long way, and to go back and see what we've achieved, to see the value of that, not just with snooker but actually from people to people.

"It's really gone from strength to strength, it's been a marriage made in heaven. It's a people business that we built on the ground, about participation, grassroots, getting people active and playing. And the government and sports authorities bought into that. Where it's gone has been a great journey of my life.

"The growth has not come without challenges and hard miles. We've gone from city to city, traveling on China's wonderful trains and in cars, promoting the sport, consistently over years and years. We've left something in every city we've been to, be it a few snooker tables, a club, or an academy, and we've now covered a nation with a sport.

"The rest is history: we now have a world snooker champion from China, Zhao Xintong, and just recently Bai Yulu became the world number one women's snooker player, and she also competes on the main tour with the men, as she is so good.

"Snooker is an interesting sport, we're a precision sport, but it is also very technical and is a very mental sport. Snooker is extreme technical skill, coupled with a game of chess over the top of it. There is amazing strategy in our sport, and a deep mental strength is required to be the best, and I think it has suited China very, very well."

Broadcaster and outdoors enthusiast Bear Grylls was also among those awarded. His survival reality television shows, including many filmed in remote areas of China, have proved hugely popular among fans across the country.

"It's been a great privilege for me to reach the hearts of a whole generation of young Chinese people, and to encourage them to love the outdoors, and to live life boldly, and to live it with respect for nature, with kindness in their heart, and with that 'never give up' spirit that conquers so much, and long may that continue," Grylls told attendees.

A pioneer in China's funds and wine, Chris Ruffle, founder of Heartland Capital, and owner of the Treaty Port Vineyard in China's Shandong province, was recognized for services to the wine industry in China.

Speaking to China Daily on the sidelines of the awards, Ruffle said: "I planted the winery there in 2005, and I also built a Scottish castle, which we use for bottling and distribution.

"There have been ups and downs, and we have been reliant on tourism, for tasting, but our growth business now is Scottish whiskey. We bring it in bulk, and then bottle it and distribute it from the castle.

"Our pre-bottled 'whiskey mack' ginger-wine brand sells very well. We patented the brand name whiskey mack in China, and I found the Chinese really like it, as the ginger taste is recognizable, it slightly sweetens the whiskey, and you can 'ganbei' it (to drain the glass in one go, or to say 'bottoms up')."

Before founding Treaty Wines, Ruffle made his name in China in 1997 by setting up the first fund to allow foreign investors to access the domestic A-share market. Ruffle believes now is again a good time to invest in the Chinese market.

"I get the sense money is flowing back into the Chinese stock market," he said. "Performance was strong last year and people are optimistic on the RMB currency, which is an incentive to invest in Chinese stocks."

Founded by British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf in 1999, the Hurun media and research group, which is best known for the China Rich List, acts as a prominent authority on tracking wealth, entrepreneurship, and startups in China and India. Its title comes from Hoogewerf's Chinese name, 'Hu Run'.

Mo Samba, founder of Askmosamba, a UK-based private concierge company, with nine global offices including four in China, told China Daily the Hurun awards matter "as China is the most important economy worldwide now.

"We are celebrating the successes and partnerships between China and the UK. It just makes sense. It's actually very important now to look past some of the politics around the world. I think being partners is the 'level-forward' in life for the UK, for all our success. Economic stability is key for the UK, and Chinese people are going to solve this for us.

"It was very important for the UK prime minister to visit China after such a long time. We must understand, we are living in an era of intense political messaging around the world, and this messaging only serves to benefit those who propagate it, so sometimes we have to step out of it, and think outside the box, and look at who really benefits. I think that is what the UK is doing now. If we follow the American trajectory we are going to fail."

The Hurun brand claims it drew more than nine billion views in 2025, primarily in China and India, driven mainly by its lists and research. It says it is the world's largest compiler of rankings for unicorns, which are startup companies valued at more than $1 billion, and also for future unicorns, and their founders, tracking more than 3,000 leading startups.

Three Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Tim Smit, for promoting the Eden Project in Qingdao, Richard Graham for promoting UK–China relations in the UK parliament, and Claud Gurney for the promotion of handcrafted Chinese culture. (Source: China daily)