• CCPIT: CBBC's partner in China

From their first contacts with China in the 1950s, SBTC and The 48 Group both formed close working relationships with China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), a national body responsible for overseas trade and investment promotion. CCPIT leaders, from Ji Chaoding in the 1950s to the present chairman, Wan Jifei, have also maintained close relations with the CBBC and its predecessors. When Prime Minister Tony Blair visited China last year, he and Wan Jifei jointly opened the British Centre in Beijing.

For many years UK staff relied on CCPIT to make the practical arrangements for seminars and missions in China, and until the 1990s, CCPIT staff would normally accompany these events. The opening of a CCPIT office in London in the early 1980s made co-operation simpler, and there was constant contact with the office managers. Although the organisation of events in China is now much easier than it was, CBBC still looks to CCPIT as its natural counterpart in China.

• Messages of support
Tony Blair; Wen Jiabao; Wan Jifei; Zha Peixin
• Introduction
Lord Powell; Peter Nightingale
History
• Spirit of the times
The 48 Group holds a unique place in international trade history, writes Luise Schafer.
• Profile: Jack Perry
• Profile: Sir John Keswick
• Softly, softly
From an idea, to a desk, to a fully fledged trade promotion body, Hilary Footer charts the growth of the Sino-British Trade Council.
• Profile: Jack Taylor
• Mission unaccomplished
Recent policy changes in China may mean that within the next 50 years China will achieve its cherished goal, writes Allan Zhang.
• 1973: UK exhibition
Shop window for the 1970s
• Taking on a business focus
As China has grown, so the work of the CBBC has expanded and diversified, writes Janet Kealey.
• Royal visit, grand events
The two-day seminar ‘Sea Day' and ‘Land Day' in Shanghai in October 1986, coincided with the Queen's historic visit to China, writes Janet Kealey.
• Profile: CCPIT
CBBC's partner in China
• Meeting of minds
Mandi Sturrock explains how the merger of the SBTC and the 48 Group came about.
• The 1995 Mission
Breaking the logjam

Special features
• Visit to the UK: Wen Jiabao
China's premier, Wen Jiabao, was the latest in a long line of VIP visitors from China to
be received by CBBC.
• CBBC's new directions
New initiatives for CBBC's new half-century

First Person
Personal insights and memories from the past 50 years
• Percy Timberlake
• Alan Donald
• Richard Evans
• Douglas Hurd
• Derek Lyons
• Tony Galsworthy
• Hugh Davies
• Ian Rae
• Frank Edwards
• John Stuttard
• Michael Doughty
• Charles Cuddington
• Bill Thomson
• William Wainman