is also concern about human rights issues. Over the last few years the Centre has seen a significant increase in membership by British born Chinese. We maintain close links with several Chinese community associations, particularly in London and Manchester, through the activities of our staff and committee members.
7.4 We see a role for the Centre in helping to coordinate these various interests and to ensure that information on current developments can be shared on a regular basis. We have been addressing these issues through our biannual China Forum and intend to publish a "China-Britain: current projects (non-commercial)" newssheet.
7.5 The Centre sees potential in developing an informal European network for China. With funding from the Ford Foundation the Director has visited colleagues in a number of European countries to discuss China relations and institutional arrangements. The Centre is unique in Europe and therefore, well-placed to initiate cooperative projects. A European Directory is now being drafted by the Centre as a first step. We are also exploring a number of opportunities for collaboration with European colleagues in research and in exchange programmes, but these will depend on our success in raising additional funding.
Towards the Future
8.1 1997 will mark the start of a new phase in Britain's relationship with China. Our political and commercial interests, however, will continue to need the support of wide ranging non governmental relations and Britain will maintain an interest in ensuring the successful transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty.
8.2 Limited resources restrict the extent to which a country like Britain can sustain its influence internationally. The Centre has already demonstrated its concern to ensure that maximum benefit is derived from bilateral relations with China through careful targeting of public funds and joint funding with the private sector. Business sponsorship of cultural exchange is likely to increase as the Chinese market becomes more sophisticated and a number of the Centre's projects, such as the Work Placement Scheme, are designed to help meet commercial objectives. Britain's relations with China, however, are dictated by long term interests that do not always coincide with those of the market. Economic development has accentuated social and political stresses within China. While the goal appears to be the successful transition to a market economy, leadership struggles, corruption and popular unrest are daunting obstacles. If China yet again appears to waver in its commitment to the virtues of the international market, many businesses will be quick to look elsewhere and will withdraw their support for non-trading activities.
8.3 Over the last twenty years contact with China has helped to enrich Britain's cultural life, boost medical and scientific research and give thousands of Britons, from schoolchildren to professors, an opportunity to visit China and live and work with the Chinese people. Unlike our relations with Europe, the Commonwealth or America our relations with China are not sustained by close historic or cultural ties. After 1997 we will no longer be able to rely on using Hong Kong as a springboard into China and we predict that the Centre will increasingly be called upon to advise and offer assistance.
8.4 Looking to the future, the Great Britain-China Centre has set three important
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