Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to strengthen diplomatic relations with China.

The UK-China relationship is strong, growing, and delivering benefits for both countries. During the State Visit of President Xi Jinping in October 2015 we established a Comprehensive Strategic Global Partnership for the 21st Century. Through this partnership we are working together to tackle global challenges, build our economies for the future, and deepen our people to people links.

The strength of our relationship is demonstrated by the breadth and depth of high level dialogue between our two countries. We have annual high-level Ministerial dialogues on global strategic issues, economic and financial issues, and on our people to people links (covering a range of issues such as education, health, culture and innovation). These are underpinned by a wide range of other dialogues, covering issues such as security, human rights, energy and foreign policy. These dialogues enable us to deliver benefits for the prosperity aims and global agendas of both our countries. They also allow us to discuss issues such as cyber and human rights, because a strong, mature relationship means we can have open and constructive discussion on all subjects, including where we might not agree.

The UK Government has five posts in mainland China, making it our largest overseas network by staff numbers. We also have full time staff based in a number of China's regional cities that have the highest growth potential.