The smooth transfer of government in Hong Kong between China and the United Kingdom July 1997 opens a new chapter in the annals of Sino-British relations. The bilateral relations have since demonstrated a good development momentum. During Prime Minister Blair's visit to China in October 1998, the two countries issued a joint statement, formally announcing the establishment of an all-round partnership between them. The two sides emphasized that China and the United Kingdom, both being influential countries in the world and permanent members of the UN Security Council, should shoulder extensive common interests and responsibilities in international affairs. They believed that to develop a partnership of all-round cooperation between the two countries served the fundamental interests of the two peoples and conduced to world stability and development when the humanity faced many challenges on its road to peace and development in the 21st century. And the two countries should take the opportunity of the transfer of government in Hong Kong and expand their exchanges and cooperation in all areas. They agreed to enhance their political and military consultations, continue the human rights dialogue on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and expand their trade and economic cooperation, especially cooperation in the reform of the financial system, the transformation of the state-owned enterprises, social security, environmental protection and elimination of poverty. The United Kingdom expressed its support for China's entry into the WTO at an early date. To increase the mutual understanding between the Chinese and British peoples and promote the exchanges between the two countries in the parliamentarian, academic, educational, cultural, sports and other fields, they decided to set up the China-UK Forum, the highest non-governmental dialogue mechanism between the two countries. The two sides also reiterated their determination to enhance consultation and cooperation on regional and international issues at the bilateral or multilateral arenas so as to contribute to world peace and security.

The Joint Statement has defined a basic framework for the cross-century development of the relations between China and the United Kingdom. The Sino-British partnership of all-round cooperation has withstood the international vicissitudes and made progress over the past year since its inception, thanks to the efforts made by both sides.

Politically, the two countries have seen a frequent exchange of high-level visits and enhanced political consultation and dialogue at various levels. In October 1999, President Jiang Zemin paid a state visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen, which was the first visit to Britain ever made by head of state of China. During the visit, leaders of the two countries had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations as well as major regional and international issues, and reached broad consensus on them. President Jiang proposed three principles for the development of Sino-British relations. They are to always proceed from the overall interests of the bilateral relations, base economic cooperation and trade on mutual benefit and complementarity, and increase exchanges in all areas. The visit was a complete success and has exerted a far-reaching impact on the development of Sino-British partnership of all-round cooperation. In addition, Vice Premier Qian Qichen stopped over in Britain in one of his overseas trips in June 1999 and had a meeting with Prime Minister Blair. Ding Guangen, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Li Tieying, also Member of the Political Bureau and Head of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chen Zhili, Minister of Education, Shi Guangsheng, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, and other Chinese leaders have visited Britain respectively. On the British part, its Secretary of State for Culture, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Speakers of the House of Lords and of the Lower House respectively, and Chief of the Defense Staff have visited China successively. The dialogue and cooperation between the two countries in the human rights, judicial matters, arms control, the UN issue and other areas have continued to develop. The British side decided again in 1999 not to go along with the anti-China bill at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, after it did so in 1998. The two sides conducted consultations on regional and international affairs at different levels.

Meanwhile, their exchanges and cooperation have also expanded in other fields. The China-UK Forum met for the first time during President Jiang's visit to Britain. Given the great complementarity in economic cooperation and trade, there is great potential for their development. Consequently, trade has kept growing annually. It reached 7.874 billion US dollars in 1999, up by 19.6% over the previous year. The United Kingdom is now the second largest trading partner of China in the European Union. By December 1999, there had been 2545 British-invested projects in China, with 9.2 billion US dollars of the British investment actually utilized. This made UK the largest investor among EU members in China. The two countries have enjoyed smooth cooperation in the financial, insurance, aviation and other fields and active exchanges in the military, cultural, scientific and technological, educational and other areas.

At present, China and UK are working hard to expand and deepen their bilateral cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit so as to continuously advance their partnership of all-round cooperation in the new century.