“We are at the front of a very exciting time in relations between Britain and China, a time when I think our relations can go from strength to strength in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres.”

Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, to the Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi

2008 has been a busy year for China and has seen our bilateral relationship grow to an unprecedented level of closeness, projecting a clear strategic partnership across a wide range of shared interests. The Prime Minister made his first visit to China in January and returned for the Olympics in August, the Foreign Secretary visited in February, also returning in October to attend the ASEM conference and the Chancellor visited in April.  In addition, there have been a string of high level Ministerial visits throughout the year pushing forward sector specific agendas, and the successful Beijing Olympics were an historic opportunity to showcase China to the world – and for the UK to demonstrate our long-term commitment to partnership with China. Our relationship with China is one of our top foreign policy priorities,  and engagement is set to remain a priority for the long term.

UK-CHINA BILATERAL RELATIONS

Bilateral relations are excellent and have undergone a period of rapid expansion since May 2004 when the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Premier Wen Jiabao signed a Joint Statement announcing a “comprehensive strategic partnership” and a commitment to hold annual Summit meetings between the two Premiers. Britain remains China’s largest European investor, Chinese students make up the largest overseas student group  in the UK, and China publishes more joint scientific research papers with the UK than any other European country.

UK objectives

We are working to step up our engagement with China across the board. This reflects China's increasing economic weight and political influence, and our desire to work with China to tackle the many and complex challenges the international community faces today. Our broad objectives are:
• Getting the best for the UK from China’s development: this is about getting China to see the UK as a global hub; boosting our business, educational, scientific and cultural gains from the bilateral relationship. It’s also about ensuring the UK has the right domestic policies in place to benefit from China’s growth.
• Fostering China’s emergence as a responsible global player: this is about encouraging an approach of responsible sovereignty on international and global issues, from proliferation and international security to sustainable development and climate change.
• Promoting sustainable development, modernisation and internal reform in China: this is about influencing China’s evolving domestic policies, helping China manage the risks of its rapid development.

The main channels of communication / dialogue

• Prime Ministerial Summit - dialogue between the Prime Minister and Premier Wen, reinforced by Ministers and senior officials forging closer links with their counterparts. The most recent summit was held in January in Beijing, the next summit will be held in London in spring.
• The China Task Force  - is chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is made up of leading members of the business, education and science communities, providing high level advice to the Government on UK-China relations. A counterpart body in China, made up of Ministers and officials, is headed by State Councillor Dai Bingguo.
• UK-China Economic & Financial Dialogue - this high level strategic economic dialogue was agreed during the Prime Minister’s January 2008 visit to China. The first meeting of the Dialogue, chaired by the Chancellor and Vice Premier Wang Qishan was held in Beijing in April 2008.
• Sector specific Ministerial level dialogues (e.g. Education Summits, the Sustainable Development Dialogue) and a public diplomacy strategy delivered through our China network are other key tools.
• UK-China Human Rights Dialogue - provides an open channel ocommunication with the Chinese government about human rights concerns and allows issues to be discussed in greater depth. The 16th round of the Dialogue took place in Beijing on 28-31 January 2008. The main themes were the role of the police in the protection of human rights, and ethnic minorities.

Recent Visits

• The Prime Minister visited China on 18-19 January and again on 22-25 August 2008. In Beijing he met President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on both occasions.  In January, he also held a town hall meeting with Premier Wen, where they both took questions from the audience.  
• Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Beijing on 28-29 February and again in October as British representative of Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), engaging in bilateral meetings each visit with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.  In January, the Foreign Secretary gave a speech on responsible sovereignty (put link here).  In October, he met with student editors at the Communist Youth League (put link here to transcript, and to their articles in Chinese).
• John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (January 2008)
• Lord Digby Jones, Minister for Trade and Investment (January 2008)
• Rhodri Morgan, First Minister of Wales (March 2008)
• Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer (April 2008)
• Liam Byrne, Minister for Immigration (April 2008)
• Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister (August 2008)
• Gerry Sutcliffe, Minister for Sport (August 2008)
• Andy Burnham, DCMS Secretary of State (August 2008)
• Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State for Trade & Investment (August 2008)
• Gerry Sutcliffe, Minister for Sport (Sept 08)
• HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex  (Sept 08)
• Tessa Jowell, Minister for Olympics (Sept 08)
• Rt Hon John Hutton Secretary of State BERR (Sept 08)
• David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs  (Oct 08)
• HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York (Nov 08)
• Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for DEFRA (Nov 08)

Inward visits

• Ms Liu Yuandong, Member of Politburo (November 2008)
• Liu Qi, Party Secretary of Beijing (November 2008)
• Tang Jiaxuan, then State Councillor for Foreign Affairs (February 2008)
• Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister (December 2007)
• Bo Xilai – Minister of Finance (June 2007)
• Cai Wu – State Council Information Office Minister – (April 2007)
• Dai Bingguo – now State Councillor (Foreign Affairs) (March 2007)
• President Hu paid a State Visit to the UK on 8-10 November 2005 and attended the G8 outreach event at Gleneagles in July 2005. On his State Visit he was accompanied by the same Chinese Ministers above.
• Premier Wen visited London on 12-13 September 2006 for the annual bilateral Prime Ministerial level summit. Bo Xilai, Minister of Commerce; Li Zhaoxing, then Foreign Minister; and Ma Kai, Minister of National Reform and Development accompanied Premier Wen.