Research and analysis

China: joint people-to-people dialogue

Published 6 May 2014

0.1 Summary

Second UK-China High-Level People to People (P2P) dialogue marked by prominent publicity, high-level access, and candid exchanges A strong set of policy and commercial agreements underpinned the main event and separate ministerial programmes in education health, science and culture.

0.2 Detail

The second UK-China High-Level People to People (P2P) dialogue was held in Beijing on 22nd and 23rd April. Jeremy Hunt, David Willetts, Ed Vaizey and Sir Martin Davidson led the UK delegation.

The official programme began with a dinner, hosted by Vice-Premier Liu, in an open-air pavilion, surrounded by lanterns, on a lake inside a Qing dynasty palace complex. The next day at the main Plenary opened with Beijing opera and children’s choir singing traditional British and Chinese songs. The British Council in turn had produced a powerful – and moving – series of testimonials from UK and Chinese alumni of the impact of studying in each other’s country.

The plenary was televised throughout. The exchanges gave Mr Hunt the opportunity to articulate the mutually reinforcing nature of our strengths and interests as China seeks to transform into a knowledge-based economy and to issue a challenge for even greater ambition. Mr Willetts set out our already extensive collaboration in education and science (we’ll soon see the one millionth Chinese graduate of a UK university) and announced the UK delivery partners for the Newton Fund. Mr Vaizey made a strong case for China to partner with the UK on the “soft” cultural infrastructure (curatorship, management, funding) that was necessary to sustain their huge investment in new cultural centres.

The two days of events saw a range of agreements giving substance to that partnership including:

• on education: thirteen separate agreements from boosting Maths and Mandarin teaching in the UK, establishing new Open University collaboration on distance learning and dementia care, through to setting up a new joint media centre for training journalists;
• on culture: a landmark UK-China film co-production treaty and agreement to stage the National Theatre’s War Horse here next year;
• on media: contracts to broadcast both Silvergate’s wildly popular “Octonauts” and the output of smaller UK production firms on China Central Television. Valuable in themselves, these represent breakthrough deals in a sector where the UK is particularly strong;
• on healthcare: a series of multi-million pound deals covering both software (e.g. digital records management) and hardware (planning of new integrated hospital and residential zones Beijing and Chongqing);
• on science and innovation: a satellite deal, opening of a door for UK-China collaboration on the Square Kilometre Array, confirmation that the Chinese will work with us on a work-plan for the Newton fund to be ready by June, the trialling of a cutting-edge technology for treating tumours, and the first concrete UK-China research collaboration on space since the new MOU was signed in December;
• on youth: an agreement between the All China Youth Federation and the Great Britain China Centre to collaborate on training the next generation of UK and China leaders. At the dinner with Vice Premier Liu Mr Hunt raised freedom of expression and the media and the treatment of dissidents A core part of UK creativity was the ability to challenge orthodoxy and the free flow of information.

0.3 Comment

The P2P agenda is important to our wider bilateral relationship aligning UK strengths with China’s economic development needs. In some areas we are seeing a rapid acceleration from a standing start. We invested our first serious resources into healthcare less than two years ago – and we are now starting to see significant commercial deals in this growing market. In others such as education and science we are building ever larger programmes of cooperation on what is now a huge base.

0.4 Disclaimer

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