http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0067040/mandarin-teaching-in-schools-to-benefit-from-new-uk-china-partnership

Devils minion, deity from the middle east, I would not be so sure. I'm pretty sure you could walk into some classrooms in the UK as of now, and find students who can speak mandarin and/or cantonese. Cantonese, with more tones, I would say is even more difficult.

As for maths, I would say Chinese students beat UK students hands down, but that is a given.

I think the OP was referring to military tech and so on. I heard the aircraft carrier was bought from the Ukraine. And how long have the EU and the USA had their own aviation industry, etc, etc....