The growth has happened at the expense of the environment. The gaps between rich and poor and between city and countryside have increased. Political and civil rights remain restricted. We are focusing on these issues in our co-operation with China.
A need for mutual interests
The target of the participant co-operation is to promote the growth of self-sustaining relations between Swedish and Chinese players. The criteria for support are mutual interests, common ownership and shared responsibility.
The level of sustainability in the relations is expected to increase over time and financing from the development assistant grant will then gradually be reduced.
Sweden’s development work with China focuses on
- improved democratic development
- increased respect for human rights
- sustainable development to protect the environment and offset climate change.
Other areas of mutual interest for China and Sweden may be included.
Co-operating since 1979
Sweden’s development work with China began in 1979. In recent years, the volume of this co-operation has been SEK 50-60 million per year.
The co-operation has been based on financing knowledge and experience exchanges between Swedish and Chinese authorities, consultancy firms and research institutions.
Humanitarian support has also been included, particularly in conjunction with the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008.
Environmental co-operation
Within the environmental area, Sida is supporting a co-operation between the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Chinese Ministry for Environmental Protection (MEP). This also includes support for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. This is a think tank, where Chinese and international experts produce advisory analyses and have a dialogue around this with the Chinese government.
Co-operation for human rights
Since 1996, Sida has been supporting a programme for human rights that is run by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at Lund University, which consists of a number of activities, such as support for a master’s degree in human rights at Peking University.
