Formalising asymmetry: Cultural diplomacy and the UK–China film co-production agreement

This article analyses the 2014 UK–China Film Co-production Agreement as a case of cultural diplomacy embedded in cultural and industrial policy, tracing its evolution across the Golden era of UK–China relations and their subsequent deterioration (2014–2022). The study is based on qualitative analysis of the agreement, policy documents, official statements and sectoral guidance that frame film co-operation as both cultural dialogue and strategic asset. The article examines how co-production was positioned as a ‘win–win’ mechanism capable of deepening mutual understanding, expanding market access and symbolising a modern, partnership-based relationship. It then shows how the agreement's implementation exposed divergent understandings of culture's role in theory and practice: a UK approach grounded in creative industries and cultural relations, and a Chinese approach closely tied to discourse power, national identity and cultural security. Cultural diplomacy and cultural security are treated as unevenly aligned agendas whose relationship depends on specific policy priorities, at times mutually reinforcing and at others operating with distinct aims, while nonetheless influencing one another. Conceptualising these differences in their cultural diplomacy codifications, as well as along a spectrum from defensive to generative cultural security, the article argues that the institutionalisation of film co-production reflects and formalises the limits of collaboration across diverging values and policy translations over the role of culture. The UK–China case illustrates both the appeal and the structural limits of using cultural co-operation as a transactional diplomatic resource, particularly across structural industry imbalances, in contexts of growing geopolitical tension, and heightened sensitivity around cultural narratives.