Business people and politicians (local and national) have been making much over the last year or so of this region's striking success in penetrating the contemporary El Dorado that is China.

We clearly think we know what we want from China - access to its growing markets.

I wonder though whether - in a dramatically changing environment - we are giving enough thought to what it is that China wants from us.

As it happens, I found myself - more than a little improbably - in a fascinating conversation last week at one of our more up-market restaurants with a very senior executive from a Far East financial corporation.

He told me that, every summer for the past few years, he has been invited to a week-long programme of seminars and discussions where top officials of the Chinese Communist Party share the current thinking about the trends and opportunities China faces.

This year, he said, no-one was saying anything about what President Xi himself was thinking.

The inference was that no-one was taking the risk of second guessing the next steps on the path down which Xi is navigating China.

Given just how large China looms in our local economy, maintaining some deeper insight into thinking in China might be in all of our long-term interests. Maybe, we need some second guessing ourselves.

As it happens (when not distracted by fine dining), I spent the rest of last week with a deputy minister from China and 20 of his colleagues who were all eager to get some serious insight in to the legislative process here in the UK with a view to understanding what might be adopted from our approach to Chinese circumstances.

Though many both inside and outside China, may be more than a little cynical about it, the development of the 'rule of law' is an avowed objective of the current administration there.

With contributions from academic colleagues, a local councillor and an MP, I think we provided them with the basis of an understanding of how we approach this area.

Two things, in particular, struck me about this exercise. Firstly, the energy and degree of engagement which our Chinese visitors brought to the task which itself reflects the change that Xi has imposed in China.

When I was first involved in these exercises only four years ago, it was difficult to avoid the impression the programmes were a lot more about holiday than hard work.

Xi's crackdown on corruption among government official seems to have an effect and this group were concentrating in the classroom from around 9.45 to 5.30 for five full days.

Even more telling, perhaps, was their understanding of current challenges here within the UK and of our recent history.

This ranged from the sublime to the fairly ridiculous. For example, there was a degree of informed scepticism about our unwritten constitution but also an interest in how the Great London Smog of 1952 has led to legislation on air pollution here.

It also seemed clear the willingness of the UK Government to permit and even extend devolution to Scotland was a mite incomprehensible to China facing its own demands for independence and greater autonomy in Tibet and adjacent territories.

England-Scotland football rivalry even reared its troubled head.

I may be being unfair but I doubt whether anyone but the most committed specialists here would have the same appreciation of history and current developments in China, as this group had of the UK.

The extent to which China's interest in our situation extends well beyond the purely economic into historic and other cultural issues was striking.

The need for us all to have a fuller appreciation of what China is thinking - and perhaps specifically of what President Xi is thinking - is made abundantly clear by the fact so many of us appear convinced China's dominant role in global affairs is either already a done deal or so close as to make little difference.

US researchers Pew's latest global attitudes survey tells us in many European countries, including the UK, upwards of 60 per cent of the population believe this is already the case.

The West Midlands' deep - albeit recent - economic engagement with China perhaps provides the basis for a much wider connection.

If we want some capacity for second guessing ourselves, we need to have as full an understanding of where China has come from - and is going - as my visitors last week seem to have of us.

This week sees collaboration between Hainan Airlines and Birmingham Airport, reinforcing the region as the only one in the UK with direct flights to mainland China.

It might behove a few more of us to take advantage of the service to visit China and start building that understanding. I am only guessing myself but it might stand us in very good stead.

Mike Loftus is director of News from the Future