Policy paper

Joint statement of the fifth meeting of the UK-China High-Level People to People Dialogue

Published 11 December 2017

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

On 7 December 2017, the 5th meeting of the UK-China High-Level People to People Dialogue was held in London, United Kingdom. The UK Secretary of State for Health, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, and Chinese Vice-Premier, Madame Liu Yandong, co-chaired the meeting.

This year is the 45th anniversary of the establishment of UK-China ambassadorial diplomatic relations and has resulted in the deepening of bilateral ties in this Golden Era of UK-China relations.

The two sides recognised the contribution made by the UK-China High-Level People to People Dialogue since its establishment in 2012 in promoting mutual understanding and trust between the UK and China. They agreed to strengthen exchanges and further develop frameworks for collaboration in key areas.

During this 5th meeting, the two sides acknowledged successful cooperation since last year, and looked ahead to future domestic and global challenges and opportunities for the coming decade.

In Culture and the Creative Industries, significant achievements include:

• Increased exchanges and partnerships between public cultural institutions, including exhibitions such as “A History of the World in 100 Objects” co-presented by the National Museum of China, Shanghai Museum and the British Museum, and cooperation between city art festivals, such as the ”China Focus” Art Festival at Edinburgh Fringe and the cooperation agreement between Shanghai and Edinburgh
• The Royal Shakespeare Company’s programme of co-produced translations of Shakespeare’s work for Chinese audiences, and the Royal Opera House performing arts skills exchange programme with UK partners and the Shanghai Grand Theatre
• Opening of the Design Society in Shenzhen and its inaugural exhibition Values of Design, at the V&A Gallery – and the launch of the China-UK Arts Management Professional Development Programme
• Implementation of the Film Co-Production Agreement and preparation for implementation of the TV Co-Production Agreement. Successfully co-produced film and television programmes such as Earth: One Amazing Day and Tales from Modern China

The two sides committed to:

• Continue advancing China-UK cultural dialogues and cultural business cooperation, support long standing partnerships between their cultural institutions, and explore new models of collaborations in heritage and creative design sectors
• Continue arts festival cooperation between Shanghai and Edinburgh
• Continue cooperation between China Academy of Cultural Heritage and Historic England on the preservation and innovative management of the Great Wall and Hadrian’s Wall
• Continue film and TV content collaboration, and to co-produce high-quality films and TV programmes that meet the cultural interests of people in both countries
• Strengthen exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and UK publishing organizations, and work to see more high-quality books published
• Continue to encourage Chinese and UK film, TV and publishing organisations to attend each other’s international film and TV festivals and book fairs, and encourage relevant organisations to host side events such as forums, film exhibitions and showcase events

In Education, the two sides welcomed:

• A successful first year of the UK Mandarin Excellence Programme which aims to have 5000 secondary school pupils on track for fluency in Mandarin by 2020. Deepening of exchanges in higher education, including the establishment of new modes of cooperation such as the UK-China Engineering Education Alliance, regional collaborations on World Class University Initiatives, and collaborations in transnational education including quality assurance, student experience and management
• Improved mobility of young people between our countries through a range of programmes such as ‘10000 People’ Study in the UK 5 Year Plan and Generation UK
• Establishment of a further Model Confucius Institute and 15 more Confucius Classrooms since December 2016
• School partnerships and programmes in which we learn from each other, such as the UK-China Mathematics Education Exchange Programme, and the UK-China School Partnership Programme
• Cooperation facilitated by the CSCSE and SQA in the field of vocational education qualification and vocational training courses based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of the People’s Republic of China and the Scottish Executive of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on promotion of educational collaboration..
• Continued UK-China university sports exchanges. Examples include the 3rd UK-China University Sports week held in July 2017 and 179 Chinese university football coaches selected to study in the UK for 3 months
• Strengthening of the British Council’s “Premier Skills” programme to train coaches and referees in China. The “Chinese Campus Football – FA International Foundation Coach Training” launched and trained 640 Chinese campus coaches in 2017. The agreement of UK-China grassroots Football Coaching Training Framework provides a clear development pathway for schools and campus football coaches

And committed to:

• Further develop the UK-China Mathematics Education Exchange Programme and the UK-China School Partnership Programme.
• Continue support for Chinese language teaching in the UK through Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms
• Strengthen higher education cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship education and transnational education, including forming further consortium and regional level partnerships in subject specific and thematic areas
• Build a platform to share and exchange higher education policy development, quality assurance and qualification
• Strengthen policy dialogues on vocational education and exchange information on a regular basis.
• Develop collaboration in early years education
• Continuation of the “10,000 People Study in the UK Five-Year Plan” sending selected Chinese nationals to the UK for further study in first-class disciplines at first-class universities, and encouraging more UK students and scholars to study in China with Chinese government scholarships
• Continued collaboration on the “Generation UK – China Programme”
• Continue to carry out the UK-China University Sports Exchange Programme, organise the UK-China University Sports Week and send Chinese student athletes to the UK for reciprocal visits. Continue to implement campus sports coach training programmes, including the “Premier Skills” and the FA Campus Football Coach Training Programme, and continue to promote the “UK-China Campus Football Coach Training Framework”

In Science and Innovation, the two sides:

• Agreed the UK-China Joint Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation, which will launch on 6 December 2017 alongside the P2P
• Noted the success of the UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund which has continued to be the main vehicle for bilateral STI collaboration in climate science and services, offshore renewable energy, air pollution and human health, antimicrobial resistance and agritech
• Implemented regional innovation calls between the UK and Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong, which have led to 27 new Research & Development collaborations worth £26m.

And committed to:

• Implement the UK-China Joint Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation, including launching a Flagship Challenge on agricultural technologies
• Jointly fund academia+industry collaborative research and development in seeking to possible solutions on drug developments, therapeutics and traditional medicine, to address the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance
• Continue to carry out and expand cooperation under the framework of the China-UK Research and Innovation Partnership Fund, with both sides supporting personnel exchange, scientific research, and translation of research outcomes

In Health, the two sides:

• Deepened collaboration through the 4th UK- China Global Health Dialogue on 12 July 2017 focussing on global health security, antimicrobial resistance, WHO reform and working together on health in Africa
• Held with success the China-UK Life Science and Medicine Summit on 26 September 2017 which promoted cooperation on life science and medical research
• Held with success the 3rd China-UK Health Policy Dialogue on 7 December 2017 focusing on patient safety and AMR, medical research, health technology assessment (HTA) and global health
• Collaborated on developing and implementing evidence based guidance for care pathways on rapidly increasing non-communicable diseases to improve and standardise quality of care
• Delivered training of Chinese General Practitioners in paediatrics, to improve skills in diagnosis and treatment of common paediatric diseases

And committed to:

• Continue to implement the MoU on Health Cooperation in order to strengthen the dialogue and exchanges on policy and enhance collaboration on joint scientific research
• A new phase of Global Health Support Programme collaboration to deliver global health priorities.
• Collaborate on the UK-China multi-year Prosperity Fund Programme on aligned areas of primary and elderly care, healthcare reform and life sciences
• Support health technology assessment (HTA) capacity building through an ongoing collaboration between China National Health Development Research Centre (CNHDRC) and Imperial College Global Health and Development Team

In Tourism, the two sides:

• Enhanced two-way tourist visits between UK and China, with both sides furthering new opportunities for collaboration
• Conducted a “Beautiful China - 2017 Year of Silk Road Tourism” campaign in the UK
• Launched a competition to find China’s biggest Premier League fan through VisitBritain’s collaboration with SuperSports, China’s official Premier League broadcaster

And committed to:

• Support tourism authorities on both sides to work closely on tourism information exchange, safety, visa facilitation, product development and promotion, and enhance cooperation in rural tourism and sports tourism

In Sport, achievements include:

• Further collaboration between national governing bodies including exchange and competition activities in Chinese tennis, athletics and badminton teams in the UK and British winter sports, badminton and sailing teams in China
• The Chinese Football Association sending delegations to the UK to learn from the UK’s experience and good practice in youth football training and management, as well as grassroots football

The two sides committed to:

• Continue implementation of the UK-China “Tomorrow’s Star” Youth Football Development Programme
• Encourage direct exchanges between national sport federations, sport science and research institutions and sports universities
• Promote exchanges on winter sport and Games organisation in light of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

In Region to Region Collaboration, the two sides,

• Welcomed the achievements of the 3rd UK-China Regional Leaders Summit held in Belfast, which specifically strengthened the cooperation between Northern Ireland, Liaoning and Hubei. A further celebration of Regional Cooperation was held in Edinburgh on 4 December with delegates from the UK and China.
• Reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening existing bilateral regional and local relationships and the growth of new ones including Derby - Hefei, Guildford - Dongying, Milton Keynes - Yinchuan, Swansea - Wuhan, York - Nanjing, Derbyshire - Anhui, Nottinghamshire - Mianyang, Leicestershire - Sichuan, and Hunan - Lincolnshire.

And committed to:

• Building on region-region and local level links to ensure the clear benefits of UK-China cooperation are available to all our people, including through enhancing our growing network of partnerships at the provincial, county and city level
• The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the UK working together to hold the 4th UK-China Regional Leaders Summit in China in 2018
• Close working between CPAFFC and the British devolved administrations and overseas dependencies, including facilitation of the return visit of the First Minister of Scotland to China in the near future

In Youth, the two sides,

• Held the 7th UK-China Young Leaders Roundtable, convened by the Great Britain-China Centre and All-China Youth Federation, developing the Friendship Network of Young Leaders in both countries and bringing together young politicians to work on shared challenges
• Signed a MoU for promoting youth innovation and entrepreneurship between the Great Britain-China Centre and All-China Youth Federation

And committed to:

• Jointly organise a Youth Innovation and Leadership Training Programme for Chinese delegates to the UK in 2018, as part of the UK-China Young Innovators and Entrepreneurs Partnership

In Women,

This year’s Dialogue marked the launch of formal high-level UK-China cooperation in the area of gender equality, through the signing of a MoU.

The two sides committed to:

• Implement the MoU signed on December 7 2017 by the All China Women’s Federation and the UK Government of Equalities Office to promote gender equality
• Collaborate under the MoU on a wide range of activities, including but not exclusive to the China-UK high-level dialogue for female leaders, seminars on gender issues, training programmes for women’s participation in development, and cultural activities

In Social Equity, the two sides,

• Agreed to include a new strand of “social equity” in China-UK High Level People to People Dialogue
• Agreed to deepen collaboration in the fields of elderly care and charity，and more widely voluntary and community social organisations, through policy dialogue, personnel training, joint research and institutional exchanges

And committed to:

• Jointly hold a “China-UK Seminar on Elderly Care Service 2018”，and participate in the “China International Senior Service Expo 2018”. Conduct a personnel training programme to improve services for the elderly and a joint research programme on rehabilitation appliances
• Jointly hold the “China-UK Seminar on Administration of Charitable Organisation” to strengthen bilateral cooperation in fostering, support, regulation and administration of charitable organisations

The two sides acknowledged the contribution made over the last five years by the co-chairs in advancing UK-China relations and undertook to build on the progress made at the 5th UK-China High Level People to People Dialogue.

Signed on December 07, 2017 in London in duplicate English and Chinese, both texts having equal validity.