Mayor of Shanghai, Tu Guangshao, during his trip to Guernsey.

EDUCATION minister Carol Steere has raised concerns about Guernsey’s increasingly close relationship with China.

The global powerhouse has a very poor human rights record and, for that reason, Deputy Steere said she was worried by developments that have seen the two jurisdictions examine areas that could be mutually beneficial.

She added that she hoped China would consider seriously the concerns of countries with which it hoped to do business.

‘It’s a very interesting issue in that China’s human rights record is not very good,’ she said.

‘That is something that is of concern to me. Do we really want to be creating a partnership with a country that doesn’t have a good human rights record?’

HM Procureur Nik van Leuven and Crown Advocate Fred Raffray recently visited China to tell the authorities there about the legal assistance available in the island in light of the developing commercial relationship between the jurisdictions.