U.K. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Ed Vaizey, and Tracey Crouch met with their Chinese counterparts in Greenwich to discuss ways both countries could cooperate on tourism, fashion, sport, and libraries.
This set of meetings is called the People-to-People Dialogue (P2P). The P2P was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong for China and U.K. Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt for the U.K. The first P2P Dialogue was hosted by the U.K. in 2012, and the second took place in Beijing in 2014. MOUs signed during the P2P included:
- Tourism: The U.K. will hold an annual dialogue on tourism exchange with the China National Tourism Administration and increase strategic co-operation on tourism through improving travel connections between the U.K. and China and facilitating relationships between the U.K. and Chinese travel trade.
- Fashion: The Shanghai International Fashion Centre (SIFC) and the British Fashion Council (BFC) will agree exchange programmes and propose designers to participate in their respective fashion weeks. The SIFC and BFC will also facilitate introduction programmes for both British and Chinese businesses.
- Libraries: The National Library of China and the British Library have identified multiple areas of potential future collaboration, including the BL collection of Shang dynasty oracle bones, an exchange programme for young librarians and cataloguers, and the digitisation of rare items such as the Yongle Dadian holdings in the BL Chinese collections.
- Sport: The U.K. and China will establish the Tomorrow’s Star programme, which will include youth football training camps, exchange programmes for young football players from both countries, and coach and referee training.
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