10. Stresses that EU-China cooperation should be more people-oriented and deliver more real benefits to citizens in order to build mutual trust and understanding; calls on the EU and China to live up to the promises made on the occasion of the 4th EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue in 2017, and to promote more interactions among people, for instance by intensifying cultural cooperation in the field of education, training, youth and gender equality and joint initiatives in the field of people-to-people exchange; 11. Draws attention to the need for greater support to students and scholars from China who are in Europe, so that they are less vulnerable to being pressured by Chinese authorities to surveil one another and to become tools of the Chinese state, as well as the importance of looking very carefully at substantial mainland funding to academic institutions across Europe; 12. Welcomes the outcome of the 4th EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue that took place on 13 and14 November 2017 in Shanghai; stresses that the High Level Peopleto-People Dialogue should help build mutual trust and consolidate intercultural understanding between EU and China; 13. Welcomes the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY); highlights that besides its economic significance, it is a fine example of EU cultural diplomacy in the framework of the EU-China strategic partnership, as well as a way to develop a better understanding between European and Chinese peoples; underlines that the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year coincides with the European Year of Cultural Heritage and that an increasing number of Chinese tourists highly value the cultural richness of Europe; 14. Calls on the EU Member States to urgently and decisively step up collaboration and unity on their China policies, including in the UN fora, in view of the EU’s failure, for the first time ever, to make a joint statement on China’s human rights records at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June 2017; strongly suggests taking advantage of Europe’s much greater collective bargaining power with China, and that Europe defends its democracies so as to better face up to China’s systematic efforts to influence its politicians and civil society, in order to shape an opinion more conducive to China’s strategic interests; in that regard calls on the larger Member States to use their political and economic weight towards China to promote the EU’s interests; is concerned that China is also attempting to influence educational and academic institutions and their curricula; proposes that the EU and the Member States foster high-quality European thinktanks on China in order to ensure the availability of independent expert advice for strategic orientations and decision-making; 15. Underlines that the promotion of human rights and the rule of law must be at the core of the EU's engagement with China; firmly condemns the ongoing harassment, arbitrary arrest and prosecution of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, academics and labour rights defenders and their families without due process, including foreign nationals both in mainland China and abroad; underlines that a vibrant civil society and the work of human rights defenders are key to an open and prosperous society; stresses the importance for the EU to robustly act to promote full respect for human rights in the context of its relationship with China, focusing on both immediate results such as to end the government’s crackdown on human rights defenders, civil society actors and dissidents, to end all judicial harassment and intimidation against them, to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, including EU citizens and medium/long-term goals such as legal and policy reforms in line with international human