of law have ensured that China's human rights record is now regularly raised in international fora.
2.3 At a diplomatic level Britain's relations with China may often be problematic. On other levels, however, there is a wide range of shared interests and potential for exchange and cooperation, between intellectuals, artists, professionals and business men and women. Given the significance of China and Britain's special interests over Hong Kong, cultural and commercial relations are a particularly important dimension to our relationship.
2.4 Not everyone, however, supports a policy of cultural and commercial contact with China. A minority argue that only through isolating China will the government be forced to address its human rights record. The Great Britain-China Centre does not share this view. We believe that the international exchange of ideas, values and knowledge empowers the Chinese people and enhances their role in creating a modern and open China.
2.5
Willingness to maintain cultural relations with China does not, in itself, indicate unwillingness to condemn abuse. Despite the rhetoric, in recent years, China has responded to international criticism: in publishing White Papers on human rights issues it has conceded that this is a legitimate subject for international debate. A number of well known political prisoners have been released as a direct result of Western intervention. China should be encouraged to become a full member of the international human rights framework.
2.6 The pace of economic development in China has brought to the fore the need for change. As China moves towards a market economy its social institutions must adapt to the demands of a plural society and develop alternatives to the Party and State apparatus. The much vaunted success of places such as Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Shanghai masks a problem of growing economic disparity, environmental pollution, unemployment and rural poverty. Since the late nineteenth century the Chinese have turned to Western science and technology to solve practical problems. Today many officials, as well as academics, look to overseas experience for new ideas.
2.7 China's interest in Western experience does not necessarily indicate support for Western values, indeed the Chinese hope that modernisation can be achieved without losing the essence of their own culture. China's history and experience of Western imperialism give it an enormous sense both of self-sufficiency and resentment of the West and we see these attitudes in the current debate over human rights as well as in the negotiations over Hong Kong.
The role of the Great Britain-China Centre
3.1 The Centre advocates the use of carefully targeted funding to ensure that our cultural relations with China continue to develop in new and promising directions. We support initiatives that help the Chinese address a range of social and economic issues and bring to problems the benefit of British ideas and experience. We also support efforts to encourage collaboration and innovation in the arts. In our current exchange programme we have projects with a number of Chinese ministries, research institutes, arts organisations and universities looking at juvenile delinquency, employment services, health care needs of the elderly, contemporary dance and environmental education.
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