...and pigs can fly!

So some of you might've read David Cameron's intention to double the trade between the UK and China to £63bn by 2015. True to his word, he's already signed a number of agreements that aim to boost business in the UK and strengthen trade links with China.

(If you want to save me regurgitating and risking plagiarising the FT, feel free to read the economic backdrop to this decision here).

What really caught my eye though, was his somewhat unexpected decision to kick-start this 'heavyweight trade mission' with... the export of pigs to China. From Newcastle.

Seriously? With already half the world's pig population, China doesn't really strike me as particularly pig-deficient. Sure, we consume a hell of a lot of pork, but what warrants the need for pigs from the other side of the world? 

Quite understandably perhaps, the initiative, which is meant to bring up to £45m worth of business in the next five years, is driven by the need for good quality, healthy pigs. 

What's wrong with Chinese born and bred pigs, you might ask? Meet Zhu Jianqiang (猪坚强), otherwise known as 'Strong-willed pig'. She was born with only two front legs, and has become something of a celebrity in China.

Her owner, Wang Xihai recalls: 'My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it's a life, I thought I should give it a chance and unexpectedly it survived healthily.' 

He trained her daily by lifting up her tail, and within 30 days she was able to walk upside down. And despite receiving a high offer from a circus in exchange for Strong-willed pig, he refuses to sell her.

'She proved to us that no matter what form a life is, it should continue to live on. I won't sell her how much the offer is.'

Let that be a lesson unto us all.